Minddistrict @ the Psychological therapies in NHS conference

The government intend to make welfare savings, which will have a major impact on people with mental health issues in receipt of welfare benefits. Therefore, now seems to be the time to discuss new ways of providing an integrated offer of support to those most in need.

Can ehealth help psychological services do more for less?

In times of welfare savings, smart person focused solutions are needed. How can we offer support to patients at a reduced cost whilst maintaining the same quality of care?

• Revolutionise traditional care models: Seamless care models offer flexibility. Various treatment components (like face-to-face, videosessions, telephone, online interventions etc.) can be combined. Professionals choose these, along with treatment tools, to personalise treatments to a patient’s needs. In times of pressure or growth, these seamless care models can offer a more productive and effective way of delivering care.

• Spark people's’ self-efficacy: Seamless therapy facilitates the integration of care into patients day-to-day life, which allows patients to achieve sustainable behaviour change in their own environment. For instance, patients can be more involved by keeping (mobile) diaries, filling out questionnaires and completing exercises whilst being able to message their therapist through a secure message function. By integrating treatment and support via interventions and communication tools in an online platform, patient's’ self-reliance and self-efficacy can be stimulated.

• Reach out to more people: In 2014-15, 450.000 people who referred to IAPT never entered treatment. One way to support people whilst on the waiting list is to encourage self-help. What if you are on a waiting list for talking therapy and you were offered to start your treatment journey with personalised self-care interventions while waiting? A treatment platform allows services to give people access to an online therapy room where they can work on a range of different modules and trainings that fit to the needs of the service user. Such an online treatment platform can also help to improve access to care for hard to reach individuals (sufferers of stigma, physical restrictions, live in rural areas etc.) as they are able to access care anonymously and remotely.

It can be challenging to adopt a revolutionised way of working

Indeed, the implementation of ehealth can allow services to reach out to a broad range of people and make more cost-effective gains. However, it can be challenging to adopt ehealth and implement it in your way of working. For instance, how do you know where ehealth fits within your service?  Or you might wonder whether technology will replace personal contact in treatment. Others might think: ‘what if my patient isn’t tech savvy enough in order to even engage in interactive online treatments?’ 

We invite you to come and see for yourself

Are you concerned about the effectiveness, user friendliness and impact of smart technology on traditional models of care delivery? We invite you to come to our stand and see for yourself! During the two day  conference we will offer:

• Online therapy tryouts: We will give you a demonstration on a tablet at our stand and let you try out online therapy for yourself. We would love to hear your unsalted feedback!

• Revolutionised care-model assessment sessions: In addition, we will organise 10-minute revolutionised care model-assessments. A well-defined vision for the improvement of personalised mental healthcare is the base of any strategic ehealth implementation framework. Based on your current care delivery model and aspirations, we will assess and co-identify where you can do more for less with ehealth against a stable or higher quality of care.

We hope to see you there!

Visit Minddistrict at stand 7, or follow unsalted reviews and personalised model of online care creations via Twitter #NewSavoy2016