SBRI Healthcare and the Health Innovation Network have awarded more than £1.7m to nine digital innovation projects designed to offer workplace support for individuals with poor mental health.
The initiative comes as a result of SBRI Healthcare’s Competition 27: Work-related digital innovations for individuals with poor mental health, which saw a number of entrants from across health and care. The selected digital innovations include:
- InsideOut 25 Ltd: Awarded £196,071 to explore the use of AI coach, Remi™ for “personalised therapeutic interventions” when delivering clinical support for depression, insomnia and relationships.
- Elaros 24/7 Ltd: Awarded £190,943 for its digital tool, Adjustments by Open-OH, designed to help those with long-term mental health conditions “initiate, evaluate, and refine adjustments with employers”.
- Affiniti AI: Awarded £194,852 for their study on “enhancing therapy engagement for NHS healthcare workers with personalised AI”.
- Tend VR Ltd: Awarded £191,213 for supporting mental health in the agricultural workplace through the use of virtual reality.
- Wellmind Health: Awarded £192,134 for the development of a digital mindfulness-based cognitive therapy programme.
- Brain In Hand: Awarded £197,805 for their project which coaches neurodivergent individuals with autism and ADHD on how to manage overwhelm and reduce anxiety in the workplace.
- MeeToo Education Ltd (t/a Tellmi): Awarded £199,974 for the needs-matched, personalised Tellmi digital mental health app.
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust: Awarded £194,987 for development of the digital tool Work Well by Maudsley, used to “foster workplace wellness and community resilience”.
- Science & Engineering Applications Ltd: Awarded £199,260 for a digital app that helps young adults access personalised, real-time mental health support.
Each project will reportedly spend the next 12 months concentrating on “development, demonstrating technical and commercial feasibility, and/or generating real-world evidence” to target workplace barriers when it comes to mental health.
Speaking on the initiative, Dr James Woollard, national specialty advisor for digital mental health, NHS England and consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, noted: “We need innovative, safe, effective, and inclusive solutions to meet the challenges of helping people with their mental health in the context of work and wider meaningful activity in their lives. It will be exciting to see how the selected projects develop with the support and funding planned over the next year.”
Earlier this month, a further £3.9 million was awarded to another nine innovations by SBRI, to support the delivery of urgent & emergency care, in partnership with the Health Innovation Network. The funding aims to support innovations that scope health and care outside of hospitals, support reduced length of stay or improve discharge, or support the workforce.
Investing in digital innovation in health and care: the wider trend
The Alzheimer’s Society recently announced the first cohort of innovations selected for its launchpad programme. It supports an immersive reminiscence platform, an interactive memory playback app, and a tool that predicts and prevents people experiencing distress. This is part of the Alzheimer’s Society’s wider innovation work, including its accelerator programme, which offers up to £100,000 of investment and business support to those developing products and services to tackle dementia-related issues.
The Scottish Government shared details of a £6 million investment to be made as part of the Accelerated National Innovations Adoption programme. It supports innovation across a range of conditions including type 2 diabetes and stroke, and for babies born with rare genetic conditions.
Applications have opened for the British Heart Foundation’s Healthcare Innovation Fund, looking to develop ways to transform the delivery of services for people with cardiovascular disease. They’re searching for ideas that identify unmet needs and require “further scoping and consensus building” around potential solutions, with the upper limit for the funding set at £350,000.
