55619PATCHS (AI Powered Mental Health Network)ClosedFeasibility StudiesInnovate UKMental health issues risk overloading our already stretched primary care services. Early research suggests that mental health issues are on the rise due to COVID-19 and government policies. Common issues include bereavement, isolation, financial concerns, health (directly/indirectly from COVID-19), and domestic and sexual abuse. The lockdown policies, lack of NHS resources and need for remote treatment is exacerbating these issues. We need a better way to deliver mental health services to care for patients and reduce pressure on primary care. We plan to use our online consultation tool, PATCHS, as a platform to support the delivery of mental healthcare services. We intend to develop its capabilities so that it can support remote consultations by a network of mental health professionals. This will be aided by the development of an Artificial Intelligence algorithm that can detect the type of mental health issue, its severity, and to whom the patient needs to be referred. We also intend to set up online support groups so that GP practices can more easily deliver group care and the community can more actively engage with one another. For the Extension for Impact Funding, we will take the first real world steps in delivering the mental health network by connecting PATCHS with the NHS psychological therapies service (IAPT). IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) services offer NICE recommended therapies, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), for common problems involving stress, anxiety and depression. PATCHS will provide patients with structured mental health assessments (scored questionnaires) that will be clinically encoded in Electronic Health Record and sent to the IAPT team.