eSchi – A Multimedia Portal for Schizophrenia Learning and Rehabilitation - Work in Progress.

Schizophrenic patients suffer a severe psychiatric disorder that impairs their cognitive skills. They are frequently ostracized from society and their condition might lead them to isolation. In order to provide adequate and sustained treatment to these individuals, psychological interventions are being used as an adjunctive to medication. Some of these interventions imply the learning and training of cognitive and social skills by patients. E-therapy is seen as the new technical enabler of traditional therapeutic practices providing: access to an improved communication channel with a therapist, more comfort and reducing the geographical distances and costs associated to the illness. We describe an ongoing project – eSchi – a multimedia portal - that is indented to be used in a psychiatric hospital in Barcelona as a complement to their traditional learning and rehabilitation practices. The field work will provide the proof-of-concept for monitoring the patient performance and the social interactions involved in the system