EPSRC - NIHR HTC Partnership Award: Social Computing And Mental Health Research Network

The current extent of ill mental health is estimated to cost the UK economy £105 billion per year in healthcare expenditure and lost revenue. Addressing mental health is therefore a clearly articulated priority for government. The broad use of ICT services, social media and smartphone applications has an increasingly important role to play in the delivery of clinical mental health services and in supporting societal mental health and wellbeing more generally. Indeed, for large sections of the population, and younger people in particular, the use of Social Computing technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is already informally entwined with every facet of everyday life including health and wellbeing. The expectation by the healthcare community, and by commercial software developers, therefore is that digital mobile and social technology can provide compelling, scalable and convenient access to information, social and peer support, as well as therapy and shared self-monitoring tools and services. However, there are a numerous difficult challenges associated with the design, deployment, use and evaluation of such technology in mental health settings which must be solved using multidisciplinary, rigorous and scientific methods. The research field of Social Computing broadly focusses on the user-centred design, implementation, use, and evaluation of technologies that consider social context in an increasingly digitally-connected society. The UK's Social Computing research community therefore has a wealth of experience and expertise that is relevant to, but not typically directed at, mental health services and systems. This network will address issues of support, coordination and collaboration in this context and bring together two communities: (i) engineering and physical sciences (EPS) researchers under the broad, and inclusive, banner of Social Computing covering sub-fields of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), ubiquitous and mobile computing, and web science (ii) clinical scientists, healthcare professionals, commercial partners, charities, user groups and patients who are concerned with mental health and wellbeing. The network will work closely with the NIHR MindTech Healthcare Technology Co-operative (HTC) centre to engage in a range of coordinated scientific, technological, management and clinical activities to realise its overarching aim of pump-priming future UK capacity to deliver internationally-leading research at the boundaries between social computing and mental healthcare.

Mental ill health leads to considerable personal, societal and economic costs, and is an urgent healthcare priority. The UK government's "No health without mental health" strategy document clearly sets out a digital agenda for mainstream, state-funded, mental healthcare, whilst the NHS strategic health authorities have recently funded a mapping exercise to gather requirements in this area. Despite this activity, very little UK ICT research is currently conducted, nor supported by EPSRC, that directly addresses issues of mental health and wellbeing. This gap in UK research activity is problematic; there is serious risk that the UK's EPS research base, and the expertise of its individual researchers, will be under-utilised in the design, development and evaluation of e-Mental Health services going forward. The core rationale for this proposed network is that the UK EPS research community has, in fact, a wealth of experience and expertise that is immediately relevant to, but not currently directed at, the need for the rigorous cross-disciplinary design, development and evaluation of e-Mental Health services and systems. The primary impact of the Network therefore is encompassed in increasing the capacity and readiness of the UK research community to contribute towards the delivery of scientifically-grounded e-Mental Health services and systems, and to initiate a number of pump-priming projects and funding applications in this area. Any increased uptake and adherence with well-designed and appropriately validated e-Mental Health services has the potential to deliver substantial societal impact; existing clinical treatments for mental health are difficult to scale and often suffer from poor take-up due to perceived stigma of mental health conditions. Mental ill health in younger people in particular frequently goes undiagnosed and untreated; the fact that younger people in particular also demonstrate a greater and greater inclination to utilise digital mobile and social systems for health is a strong indicator that e-Mental Health services and systems should be urgently designed for them and the larger population. Addressing mental ill health also has economic benefit; it has been suggested that the current extent of ill mental health costs the UK economy £105 billion per year in both healthcare and lost revenue due, for instance, to absence from the workplace; the recent Prince's Trust study highlighted a very urgent need to address mental health in unemployed younger people. There is willingness by the ICT commercial sector to engage with opportunities to deliver mobile and web-based services that aim to support wellbeing and hence there is opportunity to deliver further economic impact through this sector; indeed there is good evidence that computerised, and web-based, versions of validated therapies such as CBT are known to have positive clinical outcomes but are rarely used in practice - suggesting that user-centred design issues remain fundamentally unsolved in existing systems. The Network grant also has substantial inbuilt capacity to deliver impact around People; activities supporting early careers researchers and doctoral students will be well-resourced and prominent. Opportunities will be made available for networking, placements and visits and knowledge transfer and exchange. Furthermore, the Network will put great emphasis on users and people-centred design in its scientific approaches, for instance through inviting end users and patient groups to workshop events.