Mental Health Awareness Week: Digital mental health technologies and our mental health crisis

Last week was Mental Health Awareness Week, and this year, its message is more crucial than ever. As the UK faces an unprecedented mental health emergency, with record numbers of people suffering from and taking time off work due to mental illness, attention must be drawn to the issue, and potential remedies proposed.

The extent of the crisis is clear to see, just this month, surveys found that three in four NHS workers have suffered from mental health conditions in the last year, and 52% experience anxiety. But frontline health workers are not the only ones struggling, with 78% of teachers reporting job related stress and poor mental health. These shocking statistics are compounded by a lack of public sector funding, demonstrated by the news that mental health hubs set up for NHS staff during Covid, are now being closed due to budget cuts.

All the while, the Prime Minister and his government are pushing to cut the number of economically inactive people, by getting those with ‘mild’ mental health conditions back into work. Rishi Sunak and his Work and Pensions Secretary, Mel Stride, have warned against "over-medicalising everyday challenges and worries of life", arguing that work is good for mental health. Furthermore, mental health issues appear to be impacting the younger workforce more heavily, with people in their 20s being significantly more likely to be off work for mental health reasons than any other age group. So how can we best manage the mental health struggles that so many are facing, so that people can get back to work, and feel happy and fulfilled while doing so?

In recent years, digital mental health apps and technologies have emerged as a promising solution to meet the growing demand for mental health support. If executed well, the prospect of easily accessible and convenient mental health apps could be a game changer in treatment of mental health conditions, especially given the current scenario where long waiting lists mean face-to-face time with specialists is at a premium. This predicament means that the digital mental health apps market is predicted to be worth ￡13.8bn by 2030, up from just under ￡5bn in 2023. Evidently, the market believes in the future of mental health and wellbeing apps, and it is clear to see how their expansion would be advantageous, but how effective are they really?

Last year, the MHRA and NICE launched a partnership, funded by Wellcome, where they are aiming to address key challenges for digital mental health technologies (DMHTs), by formulating guidance and providing regulatory clarity. As a part of this project, they commissioned a report on user perspectives of DMHTs, to consider how effective they are and whether there is scope for an expansion in their use. The report found that users are in favour of facilitating greater access to mental health apps, and their prescription by NHS professionals – but that digital support is not yet advanced enough to replace therapy sessions or medication. Moreover, prescribing these apps can be challenging as preferences on how the apps work can vary significantly from user to user. Without the dynamic, primary support of a mental health professional, apps are confined to a backseat, playing a supplementary role.

However, despite concerns over design, and replacing personal treatment with technology, there is a recognition that DMHTs are developing, and that their role can still be significant in combating the mental health epidemic. At the current stage, they were found to be perceived as being able “to make a valuable contribution to the management of health”. As technology improves, is likely that the contribution will grow. Furthermore, with the emergence of evermore effective AI, there is scope to make these apps more personalised, adding more value to their treatments.

For now, regulators will have to decide where they stand on mental health apps, as the growing market needs a strategy to be at its most effective for people’s health, and a population plagued by mental health problems could use a solution to the crisis.

If you would like to learn more about the development of digital mental health technologies, check out our monthly newsletter , where we monitor mental health and MedTech related policy and news. Our May edition , which touches on the NHS’s expansion of patient choice, the new value-based procurement methodology, and updates to the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC), is out now!