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£40.2 million funding to support digital mental health

£40.2 million in funding to support research into mental health to develop and introduce digital technologies has been announced today by the government.

It comes as part of plans for the government to take a ‘taskforce approach’ to tackle four challenges, to cover obesity, cancer, mental health and addiction.

For mental health, the funding could be used to support citizens in managing their mental health using digital tools remotely, or to support mental health service improvements.

Following the approach of the ‘vaccines taskforce’, the four healthcare missions will be led by an independent chair, with an aim to accelerate the introduction of these technologies across the four challenges.

Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive, NHS England, said: “We have already seen the incredible ways that new technology and innovation can transform NHS care and the lives of patients across the country – from glucose monitors for people living with diabetes, laser therapy for those with epilepsy to genetic life-saving testing for severely ill children and babies. Working with partners, we want to build on this work even further so we can work to tackle the country’s biggest healthcare challenges.”

The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, said: “The NHS faces real pressures, which is why we are investing over £100 million in the technologies and medicines of the future to address some of the biggest public health challenges facing our country.”

The programme will also provide £22.5 million into cancer research to develop new immune-based cancer therapies, and also support the development of technologies that enable earlier, more effective cancer diagnosis.

£20 million will support the challenge of obesity, to trial how best to deliver new medicines and technologies.

For addiction, £30.5 million of funding is available, to deploy new technologies to prevent deaths from overdoses across the UK. This could include wearable devices which can detect the onset of a drug overdose or to support substance use disorders to manage and combat their addiction.

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