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Hertfordshire Partnership adopts digital mental health assessment platform

The trust hopes that the Censeo digital tool will cut assessment times and improve patient outcomes

22nd September 2022 about a 2 minute read
“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.” Hakan Akozek, chief information officer, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

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.”

FCC Insight

There has been a sharp rise in people seeking mental health treatment from the NHS, with the result that 1.6 million people are awaiting care in England. While 23% of all NHS care is for mental health, it is only allocated 11% of the NHS budget, meaning that services are stretched. If digital tools such as Censeo can improve efficiency and reduce waiting times, then that will both ease the burden on the NHS and help to improve outcomes for patients. The platform’s ability to create datasets showing patterns of mental health needs regionally also has the potential to be a useful asset in helping NHS bosses plan resource allocation.