Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust has been working with Birmingham Children’s Hospital in-patient and community teams to help develop the capabilities of the Xploro App and 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 to better understand their medical conditions. This includes explaining what’s happening to them, what to expect at appointments and the different clinicians they may meet along the way. However, Xploro have been looking to expand this service to the 16-25 age range, whilst also adding a version specifically for mental health appointments.
Young people in Norfolk and Suffolk have been attending workshops to share their experiences of mental health and help with bridging “the healthcare information gap” for Xploro’s digital offering. During the workshops, they discussed how the app could “help them feel less anxious about coming to an appointment” and the different changes to be made in order to appeal to a wider audience.
From this, the team have developed a list of recommendations including making appointments easier to book, introducing key workers, practicalities around appointments, creating a tracker for reminders, giving details about the appointment by using “a video tool to show what a typical appointment might look like”, and practical exercises to use during treatment.
Sophie Davies, people participation lead for young people and families at NSFT, said: “It has been really exciting to be part of this work and see how the input of young people has helped to develop something which will be used to help so many others. The young people in the focus group felt this development would be a really helpful addition to the app, which is something they would love to see used more widely in future.”
Digital mental health
Seven integrated care boards in the south west recently opened an opportunity highlighting their intention to commission a 24/7 text messaging support service. The service is said to offer assistance to people at times of crisis, including those who are highly anxious, depressed, in a heightened emotional state or suicidal.
In November, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust published an opportunity for an online mental health services framework worth up to £16 million. The aim was to engage with suppliers on the delivery of digital mental health assessments, treatments and therapies for patients across the region, with the framework divided into eight lots.
Birmingham and Solihull ICB also proposed new plans for the region’s Children and Young People Mental Health Transformation Programme, outlining suggested changes to service delivery with the aim of improving access to mental health care. They identified a need to “work better and smarter” to tackle health inequalities, improve community outcomes and respond to developments in technology, noting how digital solutions would be key.
In October, NHS England’s board meeting explored data quality improvements for community mental health services and the emergency mental health pathway. They highlighted a programme designed to improve these services by incorporating feedback from national surveys and complaints alongside partnership working with voluntary, community and social enterprise groups.
Read our latest news on mental health to learn more about the digital improvements in this area.
