Limbic launches new products to support clinicians during mental health crisis

Limbic launches new products to support clinicians during mental health crisis

12th May 2021: As mental health services prepare for an influx of patients, healthtech company, Limbic, has launched three new products to support clinicians. 

The new products - Limbic Self-Care, Limbic Care and Limbic Prevent - have been introduced to help bridge the gap between the increase in patients and the number of available clinicians. 

The Centre for Mental Health* estimates 8.5million adults will need mental health support as a direct result of the pandemic. However, there have been growing concerns about the number of mental health staff available to deliver such services, largely due to the low number of available therapists in the UK and high clinician dropout rates.*

Limbic’s new products use conversational AI to provide end-to-end support to clinicians and patients at different points in their treatment pathway, from waitlist through to discharge. 

Limbic Self-Care provides instant CBT support to patients while they are on the waiting list for treatment. The product is able to check in with patients 24/7 with evidence-based digital therapy. In the background, the platform uses the data collected to construct a clinical profile of the patient. 

Once the patient is assigned a therapist, Limbic Self-Care transitions into Limbic Care, sharing insights with the patient’s therapist to accelerate diagnosis and treatment. As well as facilitating remote monitoring, Limbic Care is coached by the therapist to provide personalised tips to the patient in-between sessions - altering the conversational AI in real-time.

Post-treatment, the platform transitions to Limbic Prevent, which offers continued personalised support. The platform refers to personalised coping strategies designed by the patients’ therapist, mitigating the risk of relapse. Relapse currently affects more than half of mental health patients.* 

The new Limbic platform is being deployed in four NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services through its partnership with Vita Health Group, with plans to add additional services in the coming months. The software has been developed with input from Clinical Leads with backgrounds in the NHS experience and a panel of patient representatives. 

Dr Ross Harper, Co-founder and CEO of Limbic commented:

“We are only just beginning to see the ramifications of the pandemic on mental health services. We also know there’s a fundamental supply and demand mismatch in mental healthcare, with the number of patients vastly in excess of service capacity. Technology must help to bridge this gap. However, mental health is fundamentally a human discipline and every patient’s experience is unique. Digital products must therefore focus on supporting clinicians and getting the most out of them, rather than seek to replace them. 

“This is why we’ve launched Limbic Self-care, Limbic Care and Limbic Prevent. Together, this new platform will empower clinicians to make data-driven decisions, while extending their teachings to the patient in-between sessions. The result is increased service capacity and enhanced care at a time when mental health services need it most. Not only will this help provide mental health support to those who need it urgently, but the data captured will enable accelerated assessment, treatment and evaluation of patients, and will reduce the risk of relapse post-discharge.”