Top 10 Free Apps for when you're in Crisis

1.       Sesame Street for Military Families

Helps children and families during deployments, reunions, and crisis situations dealing with having a member in the military.  This app provides a comprehensive tutorial in the beginning.  Then you can go through the different sections, such as deployments that includes coping with pre-deployment and actual deployment.  It provides videos from Sesame Street for the children to watch, which makes it age appropriate, interesting, and informative.  It helps children to understand what is happening.  There are also sections that require parental grants to access, including injuries and grief.  Again these are child age-appropriate.  I highly recommend this for all military families with children, and even is useful for families dealing with grief or injury. 

2.       M3 depression check

This app appears to be based upon the Beck’s Depression Inventory.  It invites users to take the 3-minute screener and then tells then when they’re complete the severity of what their depression could be.  It is only a screener so it cannot actually diagnose anyone with depression but may give an individual some encouragement to seek professional help. 

3.       ASK about suicide to save a life

This app is useful for anyone who may believe someone else is having suicidal ideations.  It provides warning signs, crisis lines you can call, and a simple mini-training on the “ASK” principle.  It provides a video tutorial and discussion.  This is useful for anyone in crisis or anyone who may have a friend or family member in crisis.  It does note when you open the app to always call 9-1-1 if there is an emergency.

4.       Mr. Mood

Sometimes people think they’re in crisis if they’re having a bad day.  I know sometimes I worry that a day is just the worse because everything has been great up to that point, and then it feels like it comes crashing down.  I personally use this app every day and track my moods.  It’s been helpful in noticing any patterns, and you can add notes to your mood to remember why it was a good, okay, or bad day.  The faces are pretty self-explanatory.  Then a little bow-tie pops up when you add a note.  It gives you an average of what your mood has been for the last week, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days as well. 

5.       Disaster and Risk Reduction

(possibly a higher rating after seeing it run!)

I haven’t been able to test this app out as I have not experienced any disasters since downloading it, however it could be very beneficial.  I think this could particularly be beneficial in an area that experiences a lot of natural disasters like earthquakes or hurricanes.  I also think it could be beneficial to get alerts of something going on in an area in case you are not presently watching the news or have any contact about a crisis occurring.  This can be beneficial for anyone as it alarms you when a crisis happens.

6.       Crisis Cope

This is an awesome coping strategy for anyone to use.  If you regularly experience a crisis, you can have it available to click on in this app, and then upload different items that would improve your mood.  You can show a recorded video, play a voice message, show an image, show a camera photo, play a song, call a contact, send a test message, or send an e-mail.  These are great coping strategies for any crisis, from simple to extreme.

7.       PTSD Coach

This app was developed for trauma survivors, whether they have PTSD or are concerned that they might.  This is another coping strategy which includes contacts of loved ones, pictures that are comforting or funny, and songs that are relaxing or put you in a good mood.  You can take an assessment to assess possible PTSD.  It then tracks the assessments’ scores so you can see changes over time.  It was produced by the VA and is therefore made for veterans or active duty military, but can be appropriate for anyone possibly experiencing PTSD.  There is also a distress meter that you can rate and also track changes over time. 

8.       Crisis Corp.

This app helps you to create crisis plans.  If you find yourself in a time of crisis, you can then have a plan already in place that you already agreed upon to calm down and gain control and stability.  There are some sample scenarios and plans available.  There is also a flashlight and an alarm available if you find yourself in a dangerous situation and want to alarm the potential offender or to others that you are in trouble.

9.       Suicide Lifeguard

This app provides helpful crisis line numbers, resources, warning signs if you want to help someone in crisis, and the ability to call 9-1-1 through the app.  Obviously I would hope calling 9-1-1 would be more accessible than having to dial it through an app, but it’s at least an alternative option.  It’s not the most informative app but free and useful nonetheless. 

10.   Feeling Frenzy

This is a fun game for kids to play that allows parents/guardians to help them open up about their feelings.  It helps the kids to know what feelings are positive and negative.  You can make it interactive by asking the child to explain if they feel that way or the last time they did every time they hit a feeling, or to debrief afterwards.  As the game goes on the levels get harder so they’re bound to eventually hit a negative feeling and thus talk about it.