TechCare: Mobile-assessment and therapy for psychosis: An intervention for clients within the early intervention service

Abstract

IntroductionIn the UK, mental illness is a major source of disease burden costing in the region of £105 billion pounds. mHealth is a novel and emerging field in psychiatric and psychological care for the treatment of mental health difficulties such as psychosis.ObjectiveTo develop an intelligent real-time therapy (iRTT) mobile intervention (TechCare) which assesses participant's symptoms in real-time and responds with a personalised self-help based psychological intervention, with the aim of reducing participant's symptoms. The system will utilise intelligence at two levels:– intelligently increasing the frequency of assessment notifications if low mood/paranoia is detected;– an intelligent machine learning algorithm which provides interventions in real-time and also provides recommendations on the most popular selected interventions.AimThe aim of the current project is to develop a mobile phone intervention for people with psychosis, and to conduct a feasibility study of the TechCare App.MethodsThe study consists of both qualitative and quantitative components. The study will be run across three strands:– qualitative work;– test run and intervention refinement;– feasibility trial.ResultsPreliminary analysis of qualitative data from Strand 2 (test run and intervention refinement) in-depth interviews with service users (n = 2) and focus group with health professionals (n = 1), highlighted main themes around security of the device, multimedia and the acceptability of psychological interventions being delivered via the TechCare App.ConclusionsResearch in this area can be potentially helpful in addressing the demand on mental health services globally, particularly improving access to psychological interventions.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.