Efficacy and SilverCloud Health Supports GPs in Challenging Times with Online Therapy Service

SilverCloud HealthA leading mental health service is using the digital mental health platform developed by SilverCloud Health to support a confidential NHS service for GPs in England. London-based Efficacy is offering doctors using the GP Health Service access to the SilverCloud platform, on which there are more than 30 programmes, to improve mental health and related conditions.

The GP Health Service was established in 2013 by Lucy Warner and Dr Clare Gerada, a general practice leader who has just been appointed as co-chair of the NHS Assembly.

It aims to help doctors with mental health issues such as anxiety, stress, lack of sleep or addiction, and uses Efficacy, which is recognised as the leadingprovider of psychological assessment and treatment, for its therapeutic supportservices. Efficacy, in turn, is working with SilverCloud so GPs can access their mental health and wellbeing programmeswhen they need them.

Lee Grant, the founder and clinical director of Efficacy, and a practicing CBT therapist, said: "A busy GP, working 8am to 8pm with a family at home, might not be able to make a face-to-face therapy session. The SilverCloud platform makes it possible for them to access the service; and the great thing is that we have found it to be as effective as one-to-one therapy.

"When we asked one of our patients why that was, they said it was because they could access their programme when they needed to. Therapy is not just what happens ‘in therapy’ but the structure around it; and that is very explicit with SilverCloud."

Efficacy is a firm of independent CBT psychotherapists that holds contracts with insurers, companies and NHS trusts that use its BABCP-accredited consultants to provide psychological services to staff and patients. It has been shown to have an 87% recovery rate for people who complete therapy with them.

"The SilverCloud platform was chosen because of its breadth and depth of engaging mental health content programmes and support, and also because of its extensive research and evidence-base," commented Dr Derek Richards CSO, SilverCloud Health.

Efficacy also provides CBT services for the NHS Practitioner Health Programme, which was set up to support hospital doctors in 2008, and the GP Health Service, which was subsequently set up by the same team to work with GPs and GP trainees.

The GP Health Service refers GPs to Efficacy, which assesses the referrals to determine the most appropriate channel through which to deliver CBT: face to face, over the phone, or online using the SilverCloud platform with the support of a senior accredited therapist.

A review of the service established that GPs are very happy with the service. One told Efficacy: "The online CBT was effective. The supporter worked well - reliable and a good listening ear."

Efficacy was shortlisted for its work with the NHS Practitioner Health Programme in the 'best healthcare provider partnership' category of the HSJ Partnership Awards 2019. It is looking to extend its use of the SilverCloud platform to GHP later this year.

Lloyd Humphreys, Head of Europe for SilverCloud Health, said: "Efficacy is a quite exceptional service that gets remarkable results. It is therefore an achievement that they have decided to use our platform to offer digital programmes to clinicians who need them.

"We all know that the NHS is doing an incredible job, often under enormous pressure in difficult circumstances as highlighted in Pulse's GP Workload Survey which showed that GPs are working an average of 11 hours per day with them believing they are working beyond their capacity. This can have the consequence of increasing levels of stress experienced making it imperative to support and make sure clinicians are looked after properly.

"Along with a host of other initiatives being delivered by the NHS, Efficacy's use of the SilverCloud platform will make sure that timely and effective support is provided for doctors using the GP Health Service. The impact of protecting the workforce is wide-ranging and SilverCloud is proud to support any initiative that does just that."

The need for services like this has been evidenced in recent reports.For example, in the latest NHS Staff Survey, two in five (39.8%) NHS staff in England reported that they felt unwellfrom the stress of their job in the previous year; the highest figure for five years.

In addition, a survey by the Royal College of General Practitioners, conducted at the end of last year, indicated that a third of GPs hope to exit their jobs in the next five years, with stress cited as the most common reason, alongside retirement.

About SilverCloud Health

SilverCloud is the world's leading digital mental health company enabling healthcare organisations to deliverclinically validated digital therapeutic care, that improves outcomes, increases access & scale while reducing costs.

SilverCloud Health's multi-award-winning digital mental health platform is a result of over 16 years of clinical research with leading academic institutions. Today, SilverCloud is being used by over200 organisations globally to meet the mental health needs of their end users/patients. The Platform has been deeply validated working with global experts, through full randomised control trials as well as real world data from over 250,000 SilverCloud end users. The platform continues to lead the industry with its effectiveness, engagement and range of clinical programs covering the spectrum of mental health needs. SilverCloud holds ISO 27001 security certification and ensures compliance with security and privacy standards of HIPAA and GDPR. In addition, SilverCloud retains a CE Mark, ISO13485 Medical Device Designation as well as FDA roadmap.

About Efficacy

Efficacy is the UK's leading psychological therapy provider. It provides evidence based assessment, treatment, training and consultancy to individuals and organisations. Efficacy is a team of 300 highly qualified and experienced BABCP accredited therapists (which is the gold standard for CBT), psychologists and psychiatrists. Efficacy was started in 2003 by Lee Grant who remains as the Clinical Director today.

Most Popular Now

Unlocking the 10 Year Health Plan

The government's plan for the NHS is a huge document. Jane Stephenson, chief executive of SPARK TSL, argues the key to unlocking its digital ambitions is to consider what it...

Alcidion Grows Top Talent in the UK, wit…

Alcidion has today announced the addition of three new appointments to their UK-based team, with one internal promotion and two external recruits. Dr Paul Deffley has been announced as the...

AI can Find Cancer Pathologists Miss

Men assessed as healthy after a pathologist analyses their tissue sample may still have an early form of prostate cancer. Using AI, researchers at Uppsala University have been able to...

New Training Year Starts at Siemens Heal…

In September, 197 school graduates will start their vocational training or dual studies in Germany at Siemens Healthineers. 117 apprentices and 80 dual students will begin their careers at Siemens...

AI, Full Automation could Expand Artific…

Automated insulin delivery (AID) systems such as the UVA Health-developed artificial pancreas could help more type 1 diabetes patients if the devices become fully automated, according to a new review...

How AI could Speed the Development of RN…

Using artificial intelligence (AI), MIT researchers have come up with a new way to design nanoparticles that can more efficiently deliver RNA vaccines and other types of RNA therapies. After training...

MIT Researchers Use Generative AI to Des…

With help from artificial intelligence, MIT researchers have designed novel antibiotics that can combat two hard-to-treat infections: drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and multi-drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Using generative AI algorithms, the research...

AI Hybrid Strategy Improves Mammogram In…

A hybrid reading strategy for screening mammography, developed by Dutch researchers and deployed retrospectively to more than 40,000 exams, reduced radiologist workload by 38% without changing recall or cancer detection...

Penn Developed AI Tools and Datasets Hel…

Doctors treating kidney disease have long depended on trial-and-error to find the best therapies for individual patients. Now, new artificial intelligence (AI) tools developed by researchers in the Perelman School...

Are You Eligible for a Clinical Trial? C…

A new study in the academic journal Machine Learning: Health discovers that ChatGPT can accelerate patient screening for clinical trials, showing promise in reducing delays and improving trial success rates. Researchers...

Global Study Reveals How Patients View M…

How physicians feel about artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine has been studied many times. But what do patients think? A team led by researchers at the Technical University of Munich...

New AI Tool Addresses Accuracy and Fairn…

A team of researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has developed a new method to identify and reduce biases in datasets used to train machine-learning algorithms...