Redditor Disappointed By New MOE Mental Health Portal, Claims Bot Isn’t Very Helpful

Redditor Disappointed By Bot On New MOE Mental Health Portal

Earlier this week, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing launched a new online portal that aims to provide teachers and other non-teaching staff with tips on how to better manage their mental health.

Some netizens, however, have criticised a chatbot on the website, pointing out the lack of personal touch.

Recently, a Redditor gave the chatbot a try but ended up disappointed with the bot’s responses.

Despite the lengthy conversation with the bot, the Redditor shared that they did not feel better afterwards.

Redditor chats with MOE mental health bot, says they’re stressed over marking assignment

On Thursday (1 Sep), Reddit user u/LawlessWrong took to the Singapore Subreddit to share their experience conversing with the chatbot on mindline.sg.

Kickstarting their session, the chatbot asked the Redditor how they were doing, to which the latter selected “stressed”.

When asked why they were feeling that way, the Redditor shared that they could not “finish marking”.

Perhaps sensing that the Redditor had more details to share, the bot prompted them to elaborate.

As instructed, the OP shared that their students were apparently not submitting assignments, forcing them to “key into (a) cockpit”. They added that they felt as if they were “pulled on both ends”.

MOE mental health bot asks user to reframe their thoughts

The bot proceeded to summarise the facts provided by the user and asked if that was something they wanted it to help with.

After obtaining confirmation from the user, the bot said that it might be helpful for them to reframe their thoughts about the situation.

The bot then shared that some situations in life could make us feel awful. It followed up with an illustration assuring the user that their feelings are valid and that we don’t have to apologise for having emotions.

In another screenshot, the bot asked the user how they generally deal with such emotions, to which the latter replied that they usually share it with their colleagues.

The bot responded by suggesting that the user rethink how they were looking at the situation until they felt better.

It also asked about what had been happening just before the recent emotional episode.

At this point, it appeared that the user started feeling that the conversation wasn’t helping much. They thus simply answered, “I was bathing”.

The bot then attempted to rephrase the question, implying that there’s usually a thought or belief that triggers such feelings.

Evidently unbothered this time, the user typed,

 No such thought.

Strangely, the bot contradicted its previous suggestion, saying that “we might not have an explanation” for when we feel down.

It then asked if the user would like to meditate for a few minutes, which would perhaps help them learn about their thoughts and feelings.

The bot subsequently sent what appeared to be a three-minute video titled ‘Mindfulness’ that likely serves as a guide for the user’s meditation.

After the user was done with the meditation session, the bot again prompted if they were ready to explore the thoughts that were bothering them.

This time, however, the user declined the invitation to do so before ending their conversation.

User apparently did not feel better after chatting with bot

Despite the lengthy conversation, the user shared that they didn’t feel much better afterwards.

In one of the comments in the Reddit thread, they also said that they felt happier posting screenshots of the conversation on the forum compared to the session itself.

Although the advice given by the bot might be useful for some, it’s hard to deny that they seem mechanical and somewhat impersonal.

If you’d like to have a go for yourself, you can try speaking to the chatbot anonymously via the website here.

Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.

Featured image adapted from Reddit.