NHS North Central London ICB has awarded a contract valued at £386,600 to Kooth Digital Health for the procurement of an online counselling and support service for children and young people.
The ICB will use the service to provide people aged 11-18 years and vulnerable people up to 25 years, with a “secure means of accessing support”, providing a website to allow the “exchange of communications between the service provider and service user”, connecting young people with qualified counsellors who have been trained to address mental health concerns.
The service will also provide local promotion to schools and other community settings, drop-in sessions via online chat with psychotherapists and emotional wellbeing practitioners, as well as one-on-one counselling sessions.
The ICB has chosen digital mental health and wellbeing platform Kooth Digital Health to provide this service over a one-year term, which is set to begin on the 1 April 2025.
Commenting on Kooth’s digital toolkit and its impact on mental health service delivery, Dr. Lynne Green, Kooth’s chief clinical officer, has previously said: “It’s an example of how innovation can help ease the pressures on the wider healthcare system by enabling early intervention and prevention. At the same time, we need to recognise the current NHS emergency, and mobilise Kooth’s digital solutions to help overcome the major challenges. This could be reducing the volume of CAMHS referrals, supporting people on waiting lists through a digital waiting room, assisting concerned parents and carers, or providing the tools required post discharge to reduce readmissions.”
Digital healthcare for young people: the wider trend
SBRI Healthcare recently awarded £3 million to four innovations for children and young people’s health. This includes a handheld CO2 sensor for asthma, a digital biomarker for epilepsy, a digital health passport for epilepsy, and a non-invasive continuous glucose monitor for diabetes.
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Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and Birmingham Children’s Hospital in-patient and community teams have been developing the capabilities of the Xploro App to improve the support given to young people during mental health appointments. The app is currently aimed at helping young people aged between 7-15 years old with an aim to expand to 16-25 year olds.
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