62621SolderClosedFeasibility StudiesInnovate UKHere to Hear is a new online portal, proposed by Solder Creative, designed to give NHS front-line staff an urgently needed first-aid approach to their own mental health -- by connecting to, and utilising, the spare consultancy time of professional psychologists, which has become available because of Covid-19\. To date the main focus of the Covid-19 effort has been on the physical health and protection of front-line staff and key workers, making sure the workforce can be present and hands-on with PPE and testing. But contracting Covid-19 is not the only issue. It's the _fear_ of catching the virus, what it will do to our families outside the hospitals, anxiety about what tomorrow holds, confusion over protocol changes, information changes, unfamiliar roles, whether patients will cough on us, whether that patient will even be there tomorrow are very real worries - the stress and anxiety is just as disabling as the illness itself. This issue is enormous and has so far been neglected. "This is a traumatic stress mountain that is developing, and we should learn from experiences of our armed forces following conflicts, that the earlier intervention is offered, the lower the level of permanent mental damage." From the other side of this coin, initial research reveals that many NHS psychologists are stranded at home, waiting for redeployment, whilst practising psychologists have lost 2-3 appointments per week following the impact of social distancing rules, and patients' inability to take part in virtual consultancy. If we only count the c.12,000 Health and Care Professions Council registered psychologists we can potentially offer 24,000 one hour appointments every week. The system will make it easy for psychologists to make their spare appointments available on the portal. Email reminders will be sent to front-line staff as patients and to the psychologists. For speed of development, Solder Creative will use their existing digital frameworks (back-end) and technologies where possible to ensure maximum pace, efficiencies and security protocol. The online interface (front-end) will be designed to make appointment bookings easy and secure, then connecting to a secure two-way video chat platform. In a very practical sense, Here to Hear is an innovative platform that will provide our brave NHS staff with easy access to valuable and unused mental help appointments, delivered in the most effective way.