Improving Access to Psychological Therapies

Increase the provision of evidence-based treatments for common mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression by primary care organisation

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Situation

The demand for mental health services outstrips supply by a factor of 10.  A number of potential data driven solutions exist to managing demand.  One is effective triage based on self reported information using algorithmic techniques.  The second is increasing capacity by automating the delivery of talking therapies.

Implications

An effective way of investigating the fitness for purpose of data driven techniques is clinically led co-design.  This could result in a solution that would augment existing custom and practice in a manner that mitigates risk. The challenge is doing this in timescale that does not delay improvements in IAPT.  A measure of success could be a development cycle which is 10x shorter that the current technology development cycle of 40 months.

Problem

Mental health services are primarily funded by public bodies.  They employ people to deliver these services.  There is a moral, professional and legal duty of care involved in the delivery of mental health services.  It is mental health professionals, not data driven technology providers, who take personal responsibility for managing these risks.

Action

Over the period of 4 months work with clinicians to develop data driven mental health triage and treat technology that can augment the custom and practice of any IT supplier that supports mental health clinicians.  Development of any resulting technology under an open source licence (e.g. AGPLv3) will de-risk any future investment associated with the implementation of such technology

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Target Interfaces