Innovation in mental health: a critical enabler to “Get Britain Working”?

The Government’s Get Britain Working white paper on reversing recent trends around unemployment makes it clear the role that mental ill-health plays in limiting people’s ability to work. 

From its mention in the second paragraph of the foreword – and 33 times subsequently, more than any other health condition – it is impossible to miss how much focus the paper puts on the importance of fixing our collective mental health to boost society’s productivity. 

As the paper examines the drivers of unemployment in the UK in detail, the reasons for this focus become clear. Mental health is now the largest work-limiting health condition among those aged 44 and younger. The number of young people who report that their mental health limits the amount or type of work they can do has risen by more than 400% over the past decade. 

So – what has gone wrong? And how could the NHS work with employers and other partners to fix the relationship between mental health and work? 

Covid-19 and a mental health system pushed beyond its limits 

Like many parts of the health and care system, mental health services in the UK were under significant pressure before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. 

Recruitment and retention of staff has been a long-term challenge in the sector, with particular shortages in nursing and senior medical staff being raised as serious risks well before the spectre of coronavirus reared its unwelcome head.  

2020 and the years that have followed have stretched our systems to the brink. 

Demand for treatment following the detrimental impact of the pandemic on individual mental wellbeing has spiked, with some services such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) experiencing a rise in referrals of more than 50%. 

At the same time, staffing issues have worsened, with excessive workloads leading to a vicious cycle of sickness, burnout and staff leaving the sector. 

All this has led to a situation where – despite the best efforts of staff and service leaders – hundreds of thousands of people across the UK are unable to access the diagnosis and treatment they need for mental health conditions in a timely manner. 

In this context, it is unsurprising that we are struggling to support a significant proportion of our population to be mentally “fit to work”. 

Doing things differently: the role of innovation in improving the mental health of our workforce 

The challenges facing the mental health sector are undeniably intimidating. Patience and well-intentioned tinkering will not deliver the improvements that we need to get the mental health of the nation back on track; transformative change is what we need. 

At the Health Innovation Network South London, we are proud to be working with some of the innovators facing those challenges head on – and making real progress towards overcoming them. 

Many of the innovators we are working with recognise the vital importance of childhood in determining long-term mental health.  

As the Faculty of Public Health describe the situation: “The most important opportunities for prevention of mental illness and promotion of mental health therefore lie in childhood, many of them in the context of the family”. Helping young people to build their mental wellness and resilience during childhood could be key to addressing the long-term illness keeping so many young people out of work. 

Among the work we have done in this area recently is a project with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust to implement Lumi Nova, a therapeutic gaming app to support young children with anxiety.  One of the key themes from the work has been the importance of “whole system” thinking – recognising that mental health is the responsibility of more than just mental health services. 

A number of the early-stage innovators we support through the Innovate UK Mindset-XR programme are focused on using immersive technology to support children’s mental health in new and engaging ways. Through these technologies, we hope that in the future we can provide children with the option of safe and effective care delivered in ways that reflect their increasingly digital-first lifestyles. 

Two of our Mindset-XR companies (InsideOut and Tend VR) and TellMi, a company we have supported through our other programmes, have just received a share of £1.7m from SBRI to continue their work, focusing on workplace impact. 

But not all innovation has to be digital. For several years, we have supported the development and national adoption of FREED, a groundbreaking early intervention for eating disorders. This new model of care, originally developed by South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, has helped thousands of young people access earlier diagnosis and more effective treatment for eating disorders. 

Our work on FREED continues with the pilot of peer support workers, a project that is looking to diversify the FREED workforce and enable people with lived experience of eating disorders gain paid employment – the report on this project is due in summer 2025.  

Elsewhere, we work closely with innovators tackling mental illnesses which are less well known and highly relevant not just to tomorrow’s workforce, but to the workforce of today. 

Also through SBRI funding, we are currently working in partnership with Samphire Neuroscience and Queen Mary University London to support the validation of a Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Device (Nettle) to manage symptoms of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). PMDD is another example of an often-overlooked condition causing increased absenteeism, decreased productivity and decreased work-related quality of life. 

Although the approach taken by each of these innovations varies significantly, they all share the same drive to do things differently – supporting the workforce to access effective care through less-traditional means. 

Working together to support the mental health of our workforce 

Get Britain Working reinforces that mental health is at the heart of people’s everyday lives; a welcome and worthwhile reflection. However, economic productivity is just one aspect of a person’s life impacted by mental ill-health. A holistic approach beyond counting the cost in terms of pounds lost or employment rates impacted remains vital. 

A thriving mentally and physically well workforce is as much the responsibility of all employers (small and large) and our educational systems as it is NHS mental health services. 

Innovation holds a key to helping all those with a vested interest in a healthier working population achieve their collective goals. And those innovations are out there – with the support and investment, they will help us turn the tide.