Improving Mental Health through Digital 

Improving Mental Health through Digital
Improving Mental Health through Digital 
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How to apply

  1. Register an account.
  2. Start your entry (save it in-progress).
  3. Submit your entry to be in the running.

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With around 1.7 million people now waiting for mental health services, the pressure on these services continues to escalate. Addressing the rising severity and complexity of service users' needs has become increasingly challenging, particularly for vulnerable populations who may face additional barriers to accessing care. The Mental Health Act 2025, the most significant reform of mental health legislation in over 40 years, is now being phased in, and the government has launched a cross-government mental health strategy alongside investment in mental health emergency departments and 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres.

This award will go to a team or system that is developing or leveraging digital services to deliver better care, put service users at the centre of care services, engage the community and reduce stigma. Judges welcome entries from every setting in which mental health care is delivered - community, primary care, crisis and inpatient services as well as acute settings - and will be particularly interested in digital initiatives genuinely co-produced with staff, service users and the communities they serve, where people and process have mattered as much as the technology.

Eligibility

  • All NHS organisations (including providers, partnerships and systems), General Practice and primary care organisations, as well as relevant social care partners
  • Evidence must relate to a project, ongoing or completed within the 2 years up until the award entry deadline

Ambition

The challenge and context within which your project, person or organisation is set alongside your goals and targets whether quantitative or qualitative, and how this aligns with national priorities.

  • Provide a clear rationale for the digital project, product or service and the context in which this was required - what were the project aims, and what strategic thinking was done before bringing technology to the table?
  • Define the intended measures of success and the steps put in place to achieve them, including how the work aligns with national mental health priorities and reforms.
  • Discuss how the risks of exclusion or exacerbating inequalities were considered in the design and development of the project, product or service, and mitigations were put in place.

Collaboration

The stakeholders' involvement in co-designing and delivering the project. How have patients, staff at all levels, communities and other parties worked together to realise the outcomes?

  • Explain how service users, carers and the community were involved in the design, planning and implementation of this project, product or service.
  • Share how all relevant staff were engaged in the design and implementation, including how the wider clinical workforce beyond digital teams was brought on board.
  • Describe and provide testimonial evidence of the working relationship between the technology partner (if relevant) and the NHS organisation, and any partnerships with social care, VCSE organisations or wider system partners, that enabled a genuinely co-produced service or product.

Impact

The measurable benefits delivered to patients, staff, your organisation or the wider system. Provide data and evidence showing improvements to outcomes, quality, access, equity or efficiency.

  • Provide qualitative and quantitative evidence of improved service user access, experience and/or outcomes as a result of the digital project, product or service, with clear before-and-after comparisons.
  • Describe how the project, product or service was seamlessly developed and deployed whilst retaining any existing services to minimise disruption to patients and staff.
  • Share any financial impacts of implementation, including evidence relating to value for money and/or efficiencies realised by the project, product or service, and the impact on staff.

Scale

How your work has been shared, adopted or replicated beyond your immediate team or organisation. This includes dissemination through publications, presentations, toolkits, partnerships or inspiring similar initiatives elsewhere.

  • Describe, and if possible evidence, how the learnings from the project or product/service development have been shared across and beyond your organisation or system, including through publications, conferences, toolkits or national networks.
  • Provide evidence of adoption or replication beyond your immediate team or organisational boundaries.
  • Discuss the scope for further replication or scaling up of this project, product or service in other settings.

Sustainability

The potential for the project/work to continue and create lasting impact. Evidence of how it can be sustained or built upon.

  • Discuss how this digital project has provided a boost to the wider mission to optimise mental health outcomes across the system, and how it will achieve lasting impact, including improving parity of esteem.
  • Explain how the work is being embedded into business as usual, and what resource or funding is in place to sustain it.
  • Describe your plans for sustaining and building on this work as national mental health reforms are implemented.

Improving Mental Health through Digital 

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To find out more

Partnership opportunities:  Sponsorship Sales Team
Awards entry enquiries: Support Team
Judging and event management: Awards Support