SilverCloud: tackling the mental health impact of COVID

Digital healthcare company SilverCloud Health have created an app to support patients experiencing mental health problems that have arisen due to COVID-19. 

“Space from Covid" has been developed to tackle sleep issues, stress, grief and loss, and money worries. 

This follows research that shows the mental wellbeing of patients recovering from COVID-19 is low enough on average to require assessment for depression. According to feedback from digital therapeutics providers my mhealth, patients who used their Covid Virtual Ward reported significantly lower feelings of wellbeing. 

Measured against the WHO-5 wellbeing scale created by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the average score was in the “poor” wellbeing category – low enough to suggest that COVID has had a significant impact on wellbeing and that the respondents may benefit from further support and assessment.

Designed by psychologists and wellbeing practitioners, the Space from Covid digital therapy initiative is being offered free to anyone over the age of 18 by SilverCloud Health, who work with 80% of NHS mental health trusts in England. 

The programme offers online modules based on cognitive behavioural therapy to address the most common mental health challenges people have experienced during the lockdown. The therapy provides coping strategies to address issues including trouble sleeping, stress, bereavement and financial worries. 

Dr Lloyd Humphreys, a clinical psychologist and head of Europe at SilverCloud Health, said: “We have seen an extreme rise in the last 12 months in demand for mental health support across the UK, and in relation to a range of common mental challenges that many people are encountering and never before experienced. We need to reach people quicker and earlier to help stop the descent from poor wellbeing into mental health.

“This new data provided by my mhealth shows that COVID-19 may cause a legacy of depression – a further indication of how far-reaching the impact is on mental, and physical health. We are in a new era of acknowledging that society’s recovery will take time to nurture and Space from Covid has been designed to provide people with simple, accessible help based on cognitive behavioural therapy as they adjust to their "new normal"".