My project concerned the delivery of psycho-therapeutic interventions for mild to moderate stress, anxiety and depression via digital platforms known as e-therapies. More specifically, it concerned the use of e-therapies by older adults, a sector of the population hitherto neglected both in the design of e-therapies and in research of this nature. The primary aim…
Continue ReadingArticles Written By: Dr MR Bennion
My proposed direction for the NHS Health Apps Library.
It’s an interesting time to be watching the NHS as it goes through a transition to become more digitally orientated. One area of this shift I am particularly interested in is the management of health apps, concerning which there are currently two projects: Project one is the centralised NHS Apps Library that is being developed…
Continue ReadingMy NHS Mental Health Exemplar pitch
Back in January I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to pitch my ideas to an NHS Mental Health Trust to form part of their exemplar bid. I was given less than 24hrs to come up with something that could be presented to their board. I managed it but unfortunately my ideas were not consider. Below is…
Continue ReadingHow to make your IAPT service more digitally accessible and innovative
This article acts as an extension of my recent publication and discusses how IAPT managers can make their services more digitally accessible and innovative by implementing low key and advanced changes. Low key changes Ensure your service information is up to date on NHS Choices Service users use NHS Choices to identify local services in…
Continue ReadingPokemon Go, Mental Health and the dangers of sensationalism in the media
Last weekend I spotted an increasing number of online articles appearing that claim Nintendo’s new Pokemon Go mobile app has a huge positive impact on mental health. Intrigued by the headlines I decided to read the articles only to discover the claims being made used a combination of existing research papers into the benefits of…
Continue ReadingTHAW Event Summary: Can Technology Help Older People Lead a Healthier and Happier Life?
May 27th 2015 marked the first Technology for Healthy Ageing and Wellbeing (THAW) event bringing together the general public with those in the NHS, councils, charities and industry to discuss if technology could be used to help older people lead happier healthier lives. The day started with Professor Arlene Astell giving a short presentation on…
Continue ReadingMental eHealth care: hype or reality? Minddistrict at EHI Live 2014
This year’s EHI Live 2014 had a lot of excellent seminars on offer. Fennie Wiepkema from Minddistrict gave a thought-provoking seminar on the topic of a key area of my research – mental eHealth. A summary of the seminar, along with some additional points from Mind District’s ‘Smart Interventions’ white paper are detailed below. The…
Continue ReadingExploring Gamification in Health & Wellbeing Apps
While assessing the information rich roster of seminars at EHI Live 2014, I spotted an intriguing seminar hidden away under the HANDI Health Apps Conference line-up relating to one of my key areas of research: “Gamification”. The EHI Live guide described the seminar as a discussion of how gamification in digital applications can enhance user…
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