I am thrilled to announce that we are expanding our services into digital mental health care. Suffering with the ‘black dog’ can be lonely, scary and take over your life, and we want to give people the tools to take back control of their lives and put them at the centre of their recovery.
We are combining the success of the emotional health and well-being services provided by the not-for-profit organisation My Possible Self, and the digital technology from Inhealthcare. My Possible Self was founded in 2009 by my mother Jo Wilkinson pictured above, and provides counselling and psychotherapy to those who might not be able to afford it.
Building on this work in collaboration with a well-established research institute with proven methods, we will be digitising services to make quality care more widely available. We want people to be able to access the support they need, when they need it and from where they want. Using digital mental health technology we are able to help more people, and provide them with the tools to get further help to support themselves.
We do not want to replace face-to-face psychological therapies, but provide supplementary support. 1 in 5 people have been waiting over a year for treatment, and 1 in 10 have been waiting over two years¹. Waiting for support with mental health issues can have devastating impacts on individuals’ lives as mental distress exacerbates, too often resulting in Accident and Emergency admissions. Far too many people are waiting too long to receive treatments and we think that we can help.
We are currently developing digital mental health software to help people suffering from low-level depression and anxiety. We want to teach people how to use simple self-help strategies to manage problems and improve resilience. With support from those who have experiences of running mental health services in the NHS, we believe that we can recognise the full potential of digital in this space.
Our digital mental health service will be launched later this year and will drive improvement in the access of psychological therapies.
¹ https://www.mind.org.uk/media/280583/We-Need-to-Talk-getting-the-right-therapy-at-the-right-time.pdf