NIHR Nottingham BRC - Associate Professor in Digital Technology and Mental Health

An exciting new post which has been created in the new NIHR Nottingham BRC Mental Health & Technology Theme. Please circulate the link to this post within your academic institution and networks.

Associate Professor in Digital Technology and Mental Health

http://nottingham.ac.uk/jobs/currentvacancies/ref/MED171217

The closing date is 6th July, with interviews to be held 13th July.

CATCH PhD student presents research at NHS Mental Health Services conference in Bristol

Matthew Bennion, CATCH PhD student attended the Facilitating Digital Innovations for NHS Mental Health Services conference in Bristol, 18th May 2017 and presented his recent research around E-therapy usage in the English NHS.

Digital Technology for Mental Health: We need your SUPER help!

#DigitalMHQ: CATCH is working with MindTech on a collaborative project which seeks to discover the top 10 research priorities for digital technology for mental health. We invite you to take part, we need your SUPER help!

Opportunity to help shape ground breaking new digital therapeutic tool being made in Sheffield!

The University of Sheffield, is working with Sheffield Flourish and Sheffield Health and social Care NHS FT and a range of other partners to explore the potential opportunities and challenges around using ground breaking digital resources to help people self-manage some mental health conditions.

CATCH Academics’ article published in BMJ Open

A paper by members of CATCH is published in the current issue of the BMJ Open under the category of Mental Health.

The article: E-therapies in England for stress, anxiety or depression: what is being used in the NHS? A survey of mental health services is authored by CATCH PhD student, Matt Bennion and CATCH academics Dr Abi Millings and Professor Roger Moore who have been joined by Professor Gillian Hardy from the Department of Psychology at the University of Sheffield.

The study aimed to document the range of web and smartphone apps used and recommended for stress, anxiety or depression by the NHS in England.

It found that there were 13 different web apps and 35 different smartphone apps for depression, anxiety or stress available through either referral services or the online NHS Apps Libraries. The apps used and recommended vary by area and by point of access.

The paper concludes that future research is required to establish the evidence base for the apps that are being used in the NHS in England.

You can read the article and share it with your networks here http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/1/e014844. For more information about this study, please contact Laura Murray.

Theresa May makes a stand for mental health

Jacob Andrews

Today, Theresa May will give a speech about how her government plans to overhaul mental health services in the UK. This will include increased funding for community mental health services, as well as training for schools and employers about mental health, and improved online services allowing people to check their symptoms online.

This is great news for many who have suffered with inadequate support for mental health conditions, for instance those who have waited weeks, months or years to get access to talking therapies.

It is welcome news too that there is renewed interest in online support. Modern technology offers us many possibilities in terms of educating ourselves on mental health and empowering us to monitor our own wellbeing. Getting it right can be difficult, however. In 2013, the NHS started an online library of mental health apps, which was later shut down after it was found some of the appswere not secure.

Mrs. May will announce the introduction of online symptom checks. It will be interesting to see which, if any, of the established tests for mental health conditions are used to produce the new tests. One-time tests for mental health conditions are known to provide biased results - they require test-takers to reflect on their wellbeing over a period of two weeks or more, though memories of pastfeelings are influenced by present experience.

In CATCH at the University of Sheffield, we are exploring how technology can be used ona daily basis to detect mental health problems early, and whether this can be applied for older adults. Mrs. May’s new interest in mental health shows there is appetite for such innovation, and we will be watching how matters progress with interest.

Written by Jacob Andrews, PhD student in CATCH, University of Sheffield

Sheffield Occupational Therapy Clinical Academic Network (SOTCA) Launched!

A group of Sheffield based clinical academic occupational therapists have formed a network – SOTCA. The network is focussed around advancing occupational therapy knowledge and practice in and around Sheffield. It is open to any occupational therapists who share the aim of improving occupational therapy knowledge and practice in and around Sheffield and more widely.

Meetings will be informal, designed to form collaborations and provide peer support to those occupational therapist developing a clinical academic career. Group members are based within clinical practice, education, research and training. The group links with a number of national organisations with similar aims such as the College of Occupational Therapists, NIHR Clinical Academic Network and the Council for Allied Health Professions Research.

The next meeting will be in October 2016. Please contact Laura Di Bona (l.dibona@sheffield.ac.uk) if you are interested in attending.

Sheffield Occupational Therapy Clinical Academics networking at the College of Occupational Therapists Conference Harrogate 2016

Written by Laura Di Bona (Occupational therapist / health service researcher)