Hertfordshire Partnership adopts digital mental health assessment platform

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is to adopt Censeo, a digital health tool from Psyomics, to offer better support to adults with mental health problems.

Censeo is a mental health assessment platform. Users are guided through a series of questions to build a detailed picture of their mental health symptoms. The platform uses algorithms to create a clinical assessment report, which can then be used by health care professionals in selecting the right pathway and treatment.

The trust hopes that by implementing Censeo, it will increase clinical capacity in adult mental health services, improve the understanding of population mental health needs, increase efficiency and speed of assessment times and make sure patients are on the right pathways first time.

The platform provides clinicians with a detailed view of an individual’s needs, helping to streamline the assessment process so that patients receive the treatment they need more quickly. The aim is both to improve patient outcomes and free up clinician time.

Patients are also able to use the platform to complete assessments, working through them at their own pace.

Mental health datasets for an entire region

Hakan Akozek, chief information officer at HPFT, said: “The solution developed by Psyomics involves our service users right from the start, giving them the ability to share their stories at a time and place of their choosing prior to their appointment.

“As our clinicians have access to this information before the appointment, we believe this will make initial assessments more meaningful and ultimately help us deliver better outcomes for our service users and carers.”

Another advantage of adopting Censeo is that it can create datasets that show mental health needs across an entire region.

If the two-year partnership is successful the initiative will be rolled out to the regional integrated care system (ICS).

Stephanie Martlew, CEO at Psyomics, said: “We’re confident that together with the brilliant team at HPFT, the partnership will demonstrate the role that digital mental health tools can play in supporting clinicians and patients, and will catalyse adoption of these technologies to population level – ultimately helping more people into the right treatment pathway, first time.”