Let’s get on board with digitalised mental health care

A blog by Dr Ellie Robson, CONNECT project manager at SPFT's Research and Development department 

What’s one way we can save the NHS money?

Stop people needing beds in the first place. Easy right? If only it was!

Psychosis is the most common reason for referral into secondary mental health services, the social and personal impact of a psychosis episode is often catastrophic while beds for acute care cost the NHS millions of pounds a year. That is why I am passionate about finding ways to increase the reach of early intervention in psychosis care.

My journey into clinical research was a little later than some. Initially I followed a creative path into antique furniture restoration, but by my mid-30’s I was unfulfilled.

I began to feel a strong need to do something more meaningful with my life and help address this problem. After some time spent volunteering for the mental health charity Mind and studying for a psychology degree, I was fortunate enough to get my first taste of the world of mental health research with the inspirational Professor Mark Hayward at the Sussex Voices Clinic; a research clinic that offers brief CBT therapy for people distressed by voice hearing experiences.

My special interest in digital implementation developed when I was lucky enough to win a PhD studentship, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, sponsored by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and under the expert supervision of the eminent Professor Kathryn Greenwood. In response to the Coronavirus pandemic and social distancing restrictions, the untapped value of digital applications was suddenly brought into sharp focus.

If it wasn’t obvious before, the value of implementing digital devices as a way of supporting clinicians became clear along with the myriad of challenges to implementation. Digitalisation is the future, and it is important that the NHS keeps up and finds ways modernise. We know that many people who use our services welcome care delivery in this way. Devices that remotely deliver information or monitor symptoms can offer support in-between clinical appointments, particularly for people who find it difficult to consistently attend in-person appointments for a variety of reasons. It has the potential to empower service users to take ownership of elements of their recovery.

I am proud to be project manager of CONNECT in Sussex. The CONNECT digital study is a large national study that is collecting data about symptoms and daily life from participants using smartphones and wearable activity trackers. The aim is to be able to monitor changes in mood, symptoms, and behaviour to spot warning signs of relapse early, ultimately enabling support to help clinicians adjust care accordingly and where possible to prevent hospital admission.

In the future we hope to be able to use the digital data platform we develop in this study to help service users in a timely manner.

More information about CONNECT:

• We are recruiting until 2027 and looking for participants with a psychosis diagnosis (F20-F29) who have relapsed in the last two years (which can be by clinical judgement) 
• Benefits to participants are that they get a smart phone and activity tracker (Fitbit or Galaxy watch) that they can keep at the end of the study. They get paid up to £100 for their time and they get £10 per month towards data costs.

You can find out more about the CONNECT study by emailing ConnectdigitalStudy@spft.nhs.uk