OHT Mental Health: Is the answer to good mental health in the palm of our hand?

Digital tools alone may not “fix” mental health, but is there a way to use and embed the full potential of apps, wearables and wellbeing trackers that is safe, evidence-driven, and genuinely empowering to us all?

Today, more people are using a device or wearable to track and measure health and wellbeing markers, including sleep, stress, movement mood patterns and triggers. People aren’t waiting to become unwell and seek treatment from the NHS, instead they have their own “digital toolkit” of multiple apps and practices on their smartphone, bespoke to their own needs and personal preferences.

However, while EMA (ecological momentary assessment) and passive tracking is happening in our pockets and on our wrists, it’s not yet flowing into mental health services within the NHS and creators often struggle to evidence impact because preventative and wellbeing interventions don’t map easily to traditional, diagnostic treatment models of care, mental health outcomes can be challenging to evidence and users often use different tools together (poly-digital) making it difficult to pinpoint specific outcomes against a single product.

In this One Health Tech Coffee Chat, we’ll explore the emerging opportunities highlighted in the latest research framing the use of technology as connective “digital glue” to empower and enable each person to stay well, and the potential for wellbeing tools to be a key ingredient of the much cited “biopsychosocial prevention model” in the Community and Neighbourhoods programme within the NHS Long Term Plan.

We’ll also look honestly at the challenges across the system, including variable quality, retention issues, ethical concerns, and the difficulty innovators face in producing meaningful evidence.

This will be an open, hopeful discussion about what’s possible when design, lived experience, and technology meet.

Whether you’re a creator, practitioner, researcher or someone curious about what “digital wellbeing” really means, come join the conversation!