Case Study Digital stepped care: Pioneering digital mental health interventions in NHS to support waitlist management through to secondary care

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust’s integration of digital mental health interventions has helped address waitlist management, reduce clinician time by 58% and improve patient satisfaction.

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT) partnered with SilverCloud® by Amwell® in 2018 to increase access to evidence-based digital mental health support to over 13,000 patients.

As an early adopter of digital mental health provision, LPFT has gained valuable insights into the patients and clinician benefits of integrating digital into care pathways in Talking Therapies (TT) and secondary care services. 

The Challenge

LPFT introduced the SilverCloud platform to its TT service in 2018. The goals were to help meet the increased demand for mental health services and to support equitable service delivery across a diverse and geographically dispersed population.

Central to the deployment of the SilverCloud® platform was the need to ensure digital services followed the NHS Talking Therapies (formerly IAPT) and NICE guidelines. “Offering digital can’t be about doing something. It’s essential that we do the right thing. It’s got to be a good fit for people,” says Claire Hancox, Service Manager of Lincolnshire NHS TT. Since its implementation, the SilverCloud platform showed 823% growth in activations and supported LPFT to deliver care more efficiently, flexibly and cost-effectively within its services. Following the success, the trust implemented the programmes at secondary care level, to support the delivery of mental health care.  

As well as relieving pressure on services, the goals for this initiative included improving patient care and satisfaction, and supporting staff to deliver timely, high-quality evidence-based care.  In addition, as the rollout of integrated primary and community mental health services continues, LPFT is exploring the potential for digital to support continuity and seamless transitions between services.