Welcome to the first edition of our brand new SilverCloud newsletter where we hope to share with you the latest news and developments at SilverCloud, our customers and the industry. It has been a year of huge growth at SilverCloud and I am pleased to say that we have now reached a significant milestone, since launching in 2012 our platform has now gone on to reach over 70,000 patients, across our customer base in the UK and US.
As a company we are always proud to be recognised for the hard work of the team at SilverCloud and we are delighted to be one of the five companies, alongside Apple and Philips, whose innovation has been recognised in Accenture’s Digital Health Tech Vision 2016 report. Continuing on the theme of innovation, we were awarded second place in the Vizient fourth annual Innovation Challenge, as voted by almost 2,000 member health systems, an event which aims to illuminate some of the best new ideas in health care. We are also delighted to have been awarded the 2016 eir Elevation Health and Life Sciences Award.
Ken Cahill, CEO
At SilverCloud we take an agile approach to development, allowing us to continually innovate and improve our platform. Recent improvements include more streamlined views of client activity for supporters, making the review process more efficient and we are also excited about enhancements to one of the core therapeutic tools in SilverCloud.
Our mood monitor and lifestyle choices tool have now been combined into one easy to use self-monitoring tool. This gives clients a more holistic picture of how situations and lifestyle choices can influence their mood over time. Empowering clients to make better decisions and helping to identify trends and behaviours they may not have known about.
A new study from research organisation RAND Europe provides a systematic assessment of post-2013 literature on computerised CBT platforms, including SilverCloud. The study provides a useful evidence-based guide, to inform services on how cCBT solutions can be best utilised to support those with mental health needs. Among the tools that address common mental health problems, we are delighted to say that SilverCloud was highlighted as one of the most promising. You can read more of the study's main findings here.
Bromley Working for Wellbeing
Hear from our customer Bromley Working for Wellbeing of the benefits of using SilverCloud from both a patient and clinician perspective.
iTalk
As a technology company we’re always excited to see innovation in service delivery. This month our service in the spotlight is italk, an Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service, delivered as a partnership between Solent Mind and Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust. The service began using SilverCloud in 2015 and implemented a self sign-up process - providing access to SilverCloud tailored online CBT programmes at the click of a button.
italk regularly promotes SilverCloud across multiple channels including print and social media such as Facebook and Twitter and have now surpassed 2,000 SilverCloud clients thanks to their efforts.
New User Experience Study
Understanding user experience is key to the successful development and implementation of an evidence-based online intervention, and something that SilverCloud is committed to doing.
You can read more in our recent blog on, The Importance of User Experience.
Catch up on our latest digest of industry news and events below.
NHS Reveals New Specialist Centres for Perinatal Mental Health Problems
The NHS has just announced the successful bidders for whom £40m funding has been granted to improve NHS mental health support for new mothers. NHS England received 64 applications for the three-year funding, from which it chose 20 successful bidders for wave 1.
The schemes, aimed at pregnant women and new mothers who suffer from severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or psychosis, will support 30,000 more patients a year by 2021.The successful proposals cover 90 CCGs, six STP footprints and the four NHS England regions.
GP Practices to Offer Psychological Therapy to Patients with Long-term Conditions
NHS England has launched an £11m scheme for patients with long-term conditions like diabetes and COPD to receive psychological therapy in their GP practices. In all, 30 CCGs will receive part of the funding, which will run 22 schemes among them, expected to start seeing patients within the next three months.
A recent pilot has shown that treating people’s physical and mental health problems 'in an integrated way' improves both their mental health and management of their long term condition.
Men Much Less Likely to Seek Mental Health Help than Women
A recent survey commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation found that not only are men far less likely than women to seek professional support, they are also less likely to disclose a mental health problem to friends and family. The YouGov survey, the largest of its kind, polling more than 2,500 people who have had mental health problems, showed 28% of men admitted that they had not sought medical help, compared with 19% of women.
Mark Rowland, director at the Mental Health Foundation, said the findings showed that there needed to be a cultural shift in the approach to the issue to allow men to feel more able to share when they are feeling vulnerable.