Southwest NHS trusts first to roll out CareLoop Health to prevent psychosis relapse, thanks to £488k SBRI Healthcare funding

Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Devon Partnership NHS Trust and Livewell Southwest will be the first NHS trusts in the country to trial CareLoop Health’s digital platform to prevent psychosis relapse across a region. 

Working in partnership with Health Innovation South West (HIN SW), CareLoop Health has been awarded £488k by Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Healthcare to give patients in Southwest England access to its platform over the course of a year. 

Around 1 in 100 people live with psychosis in the UK. For 80% of these people, the risk of relapse each year is one in four.  Relapses are harder to treat than a first episode of psychosis, debilitating and life interrupting, and often leading to hospital stays. 

A&E departments in Devon see around 27 visits a day from people living with a Severe Mental Illness (SMI), with similar numbers across the region. This equates to approximately 10% of all A&E visits, and a significant cost to the NHS locally.

CareLoop enables patients to track their day-to-day experiences and uses evidence-based technology to alert them and their support team to any trends that might suggest a higher risk of relapse.  

In a trial published in The Lancet Psychiatry, using CareLoop Health alongside standard care resulted in 50% fewer relapses, an overall reduction in healthcare costs of 14% and 33% reduction in hospital-related costs. 

As part of this initiative Health Innovation Southwest with the support of NHS England’s South West team, will be measuring relapse prevention, hospital admissions, and NHS cost savings, as well as uptake, adherence and improvements to self-management in the community.  

Zoë Blake, Chief Executive of CareLoop Health, said: “In the UK, around 4% of the total NHS budget is spent on psychosis. The lifetime cost of treating someone with psychosis is about six times the cost of treating someone with heart disease. Our platform accurately predicts relapses, allowing patients and their support teams to intervene before they reach a crisis point, which has the potential for huge cost savings for the NHS.   

“We’re delighted to have been selected by SBRI and are looking forward to working with these NHS trusts and HIN SW to improve the lives of patients with severe mental illness in the region.” 

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