New immersive digital therapeutic solutions to address mental health issues receive a £3m boost as the first projects of their kind funded by Innovate UK.
The funded projects will use a range of immersive technology such as extended and virtual reality (XR and VR) using headsets, remote touch, music and sounds, and mobile gaming.
The projects will support conditions such as:
- bipolar disorder
- psychosis
- autism
- dementia
- anxiety
Projects include:
- Wales-based Rescape, a programme providing pain management via VR for inpatients and outpatients, which has recently signed its 100th NHS customer. The aim of this project is to explore how music content and artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to create a personalised VR solution for people experiencing symptoms of anxiety and build mental resilience
- XR Therapeutics, based in the North East, which is now providing services to three NHS trusts, and expanding application content to neuroatypical adults and children. The project involves using VR headsets to help children with autism or phobias
- SyncVR, based in London, also has a global footprint. It will create the world’s first mood management application to be used on VR headsets for supporting high risk patients waiting for mental health care
Improving mental health services
Mental health problems of some kind will be experienced by one in four people each year in the UK while only one in eight adults with a mental health problem are currently getting any kind of treatment.
Over the first two years of COVID-19 the percentage of people reporting at least one severe problem has doubled.
Delivering therapies via VR can achieve outcomes two to three times faster than traditional treatments, can cut wait times, improve access to services, and reduce the severity of symptoms.
The Mindset programme
The first 29 projects in Innovate UK’s Mindset programme seek to address current mental health needs across all ages in the UK by stimulating the development of immersive digital mental health therapeutic innovations.
The Mindset programme, with a total budget of £20 million, aims to grow the UK’s nascent immersive digital mental health sector by investing in projects which deliver immersive digital mental health therapeutics. It will also create a supportive ecosystem which will help companies bring these innovations to market.
Transforming mental health care
George MacGinnis, UK Research and Innovation Healthy Ageing Challenge Director, at Innovate UK said:
A warm welcome to the innovators who have won grants in our first call to develop immersive mental health therapeutics. As we see demand for mental health support outstrip the capacity of health services around the world, solutions using immersive technologies could transform the way care is provided.
These new tools provide clinicians the ability to deliver a more engaging experience, improve access to care and enable those clinicians to see and treat more patients effectively. The UK has a huge talent devoted to developing immersive digital experiences and applying this to create novel solutions for mental health could be a real game-changer.