Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) has teamed up with Psyomics, an evidence-based mental health assessment platform, to improve the support that is available for adults with mental health conditions.
Hertfordshire Partnership University will be using Censeo, a digital health tool from Psyomics, which helps to use clinicians’ time effectively, reduce misdiagnoses and improve access to personalised care.
Stephanie Martlew, CEO at Psyomics, said: “We’re confident that together with the brilliant team at HPFT, the partnership will demonstrate the role that digital mental health tools can play in supporting clinicians and patients, and will catalyse adoption of these technologies to population level – ultimately helping more people into the right treatment pathway, first time.”
The partnership hopes to increase clinical capacity in adult mental health services, improve the understanding of population mental health needs, increase efficiency and speed of assessment times, and ensure patients are on the right pathways first time.
Through the platform clinicians gain a detailed view of an individual’s needs, helping to streamline the assessment process and ensure people get the treatment they need faster. This helps to ensure patients receive the correct treatment first time round, improving patient outcomes, whilst also freeing up clinician time.
Patients are also fully involved with the assessment process and will be able to use the platform to complete assessments, working through them at their own pace.
Hakan Akozek, chief information officer at HPFT, said: “The solution developed by Psyomics involves our service users right from the start, giving them the ability to share their stories at a time and place of their choosing prior to their appointment.
“As our clinicians have access to this information before the appointment, we believe this will make initial assessments more meaningful and ultimately help us deliver better outcomes for our service users and carers.”
In addition, Psyomics’ fully digital services gives NHS organisations powerful datasets showing mental health needs across an entire region and creates actionable, data-driving insights.
If the two-year partnership is successful the initiative will be rolled out at ICS level.
It’s the latest in a long line of initiatives to tackle adult mental health services. In June this year Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust’s started using the My PT Hub app, which uses exercise to help manage wellbeing.
As well as this, earlier in the year in March, patients at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust waiting for mental health support gained the opportunity to use AI chatbot, Wysa, to monitor their levels of anxiety and depression.