A groundbreaking digital service that teaches people to cope with mental health conditions is to be trialed in Fife.
The £800k project is part of the wider European Mastermind programme and includes a two-year computerised Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (cCBT) trial across four health board regions - Shetland, Grampian, Lanarkshire and Fife.
The trial will allow GPs and other mental health professionals to offer the digital therapy to patients with mild to moderate depression or anxiety within the four participating health boards. Face to face CBT has been used for many years to treat depression and this digital therapy will enable a much larger patient group to access the clinically-proven digital treatment.
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Alex Neil MSP, said:
"Programmes such as Mastermind provide opportunities for increased levels of patient care. Not only will the service provide improved access to psychological therapies for patients, it will increase the range of choice on the mode of therapy open to them and offers flexibility for patients in accessing psychological therapies."
In Scotland, early trials of cCBT by NHS Forth Valley and Tayside have led to it's adoption by their psychological therapy departments due to consistently effective results. To date, more than 7,000 patients have benefitted from this digital therapy.
NHS 24 will project manage Mastermind in Scotland to ensure the delivery of the two year trial and to support the development of cCBT across the whole of Scotland. The project's overall European aims are to examine the factors and best practice required in different cultural and healthcare structures, to replicate this type of intervention more widely in the EU.
Dr Stella Clark, Medical Director, Primary Care, NHS Fife and Clinical Lead for Mental Health, NHS 24, said :
"We will support our partner Health Boards who will deliver this digital therapy as part of their own psychological therapy services. Computerised CBT is useful for all adults with mild to moderate depression and anxiety who require a flexible treatment, that they can do from a range of different locations and at a time that suits them. It is also suitable for patients who don't like the idea of talking therapies or would prefer the anonymity a computerised treatment offers.
"For clinicians, it means that more patients have access to an early intervention for mild to moderate depression."
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