UK report identifies opportunities and gaps for digital tech to improve, not harm, mental health

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Gov­ern­ment urged to invest in digi­ti­sa­tion of men­tal health ser­vices (Med-Tech News):

The Men­tal Health Tech Land­scape Review, released today by Future Care Cap­i­tal (FCC), not only rec­om­mends a range of mea­sures to enable high­er qual­i­ty care through the use of tech­nol­o­gy, but it also shows that there is poten­tial for the devel­op­ment of a wider range of dif­fer­ent types of tech­nol­o­gy solu­tion (as) there is the dan­ger of men­tal health­care “falling through the gaps”.

The research iden­ti­fied a rel­a­tive­ly small pop­u­la­tion of com­pa­nies devel­op­ing men­tal health­care tech­nol­o­gy. Of the devel­op­ers dis­cov­ered, the main tech­nolo­gies being devel­oped were apps, plat­forms and IoT (Inter­net of Things) tech­nolo­gies. Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI), vir­tu­al real­i­ty (VR), and gam­i­fi­ca­tion approach­es were also promi­nent in the sample…

Dr Peter Bloom­field, FCC’s head of Pol­i­cy and Research, added: “Sup­port for men­tal health has need­ed improve­ment for many years in the UK. The path­ways for access­ing ser­vices are con­vo­lut­ed, wait­ing lists are exten­sive, and out­comes are poor over the long term …  Com­ing up with new ways to main­tain good men­tal health, in a pre­ven­ta­tive way, will be as essen­tial as pro­vid­ing tools for acute care and we believe tech­nol­o­gy has a sig­nif­i­cant role to play.”

The Report:

Men­tal Health Tech Land­scape Review (by UK think tank Future Care Capital):

  • Descrip­tion: This research explores the tech star­tups deploy­ing solu­tions for the men­tal health care mar­ket. We describe the tech­nolo­gies con­tribut­ing to the solu­tions as well as spe­cif­ic imple­men­ta­tions, and the ben­e­fits they bring to cit­i­zens and the men­tal health care work­force. There are major oppor­tu­ni­ties in adult social care for the improve­ment of care using tech­nol­o­gy, from both a work­force and cit­i­zen per­spec­tive. Men­tal health­care sits between health and care and there are sub­stan­tial oppor­tu­ni­ties to deploy tech­nol­o­gy to improve men­tal health … Tar­get­ed sup­port and inter­ven­tion is need­ed to grow the sec­tor to pro­vide an ade­quate range of com­pa­nies to suit the needs of indi­vid­u­als, care is not one size fits all and nei­ther are tech solutions.

The Report in Context: