LifeSearch is the first commercial provider to offer a new mental health app, built by the NHS.
This app was designed by by the NHS Walton Centre, a specialist neurological trust, and was created to help NHS staff, including frontline staff working through the Covid pandemic.
It is designed to improve workforce resilience and wellbeing, and will now be offered to the wider public and private sector via Lifesearch.
The company says 40 per cent of its employees are already active users. LifeSearch says that the app fits perfectly with its cultural values in terms of democratising essential support, and helping people flourish by providing the tools, trust and respect they need.
ShinyMind represents the only workforce mental health app to have received NHS ‘Proven Innovation’ status. To achieve this status, the app has achieved the kind of impact and evidence-base scrutiny and rigour that a piece of medical equipment would go through for approval for use in the NHS.
ShinyMind boasts a Net Promoter Score (NPS) score of over 70 per cent and a retention rate after 30 days of over 60 per cent based on trials with over 2,500 NHS frontline staff, many of whom are working under the toughest of condition in A&E departments and intensive care units. The vast majority (97 per cent) claimed the app made them more resilient and a further 96 per cent felt less stressed.
ShinyMind says that unlike many mental apps, which tend to offer either one-size-fits-all mindfulness and meditation activities, or are built upon just one approach to psychotherapy (generally a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy approach), ShinyMind provides a much more personalised experience.
The app aims to become a ‘companion for life; and it’s through the combination of learning and personal empowerment tools that ‘stickiness’ is achieved,
LifeSearch founder and CEO Tom Baigrie said: “ShinyMind proved itself inside the NHS in the most extreme conditions imaginable so it’s a very welcome addition to our network of support services.”
He pointed out that many of the company’s staff have to have difficult conversations with clients on issues such as life cover or critical illness. This app should help build their resilience and make them better able to support clients through difficult situations.