West Kent CCG shares their experience of working with Ieso

West Kent Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), who merged with Kent and Medway CCG on April 1 2020, aims to deliver the right mental health services at the right time, to meet the needs of the local population and give patients more choice with treatments. Mental Health Project Manager at West Kent CCG, Zena Watson, shares her experience.

“Our priority is about giving patients choice to select a treatment they feel will work for them, while also ensuring mental healthcare is easily accessible and available to all that need it. While we understand some people will always prefer to visit their GP to discuss symptoms and treatment for anxiety and depression, we also encourage people to take action themselves if they feel their mental health is suffering.”

“We work with our service providers to ensure that people can easily register and self-refer to one of our IAPT services. There is information and options available so patients can make informed decisions about their pathway to recovery. They can select a treatment based on their own symptoms, situation and requirements. This can be through a GP or alternatively, patients can self-refer directly.”

Ieso supports West Kent through a self-referral model, making online CBT available to local residents in the area. From 2017, Ieso was contracted through Thinkaction in West Kent to provide 15% of the IAPT services, which worked well from a digital therapy standpoint. However, while Thinkaction (now We Are With You) still work alongside Ieso to provide digital therapy to West Kent residents, from May 2019 the CCG contracted directly with Ieso. This gives West Kent direct ownership over the relationship, meaning they have more control over service management, delivery and reporting back to IAPT and the NHS.

“We have worked with Ieso for a number of years – first through Thinkaction but now directly, which means that we can offer high-quality digital mental health therapy services while increasing accessibility and mobilising more people into treatment. As part of contracting with Ieso, we have increased service delivery from 15% to 25% of the total contracted IAPT services, so we have capacity to scale up as needed and better manage incoming referrals across West Kent.”

“We have always worked well with the Ieso team; they are very positive and professional. We have found service management to be excellent and the team also helps to support our data analysis.” concluded Zena.

Being an online digital service, patients in West Kent can get access to and connect with Ieso therapists remotely from the comfort of their own homes within weeks, which moves people from referral to treatment quickly, and ideal for those unable to travel to appointments or confined to homes. Ieso’s service offers true flexibility and choice in terms of the time and location a patient receives therapy – so outside normal working hours if they prefer. The text- based nature of Ieso’s online CBT also provides more discretion in therapist / patient communication, as conversations can happen in messaging form away from others who could be listening, and is ideal for anyone nervous about meeting a therapist face to face.

In the 2019 / 2020 period, 9663 people entered treatment across all IAPT mental health services from across the West Kent area, with Ieso treating 1959 of these patients. Ieso has also over achieved against IAPT targets, supporting West Kent’s waiting list reduction programme and improving recovery rates.

Key learnings

A self-referral model means GPs can educate on the best IAPT treatment available but patients make their own selection based on their own symptoms, situation and requirements. Patients can also self-refer with the need to visit their GP. Both options gives control back to patient.

Digital delivery of therapy provides flexibility to patients in terms of availability, can be accessed remotely anytime, and is more accessible for more patients across demographics.

With their own therapists and ability to scale up as needed, Ieso’s service deployment and management is easy and pain free.

Takeaway tips

1. Consider online therapy to help reach patients remotely and quickly, while also reducing waiting times to move patients into treatment quickly.

2. Think about taking more capacity to scale as demand increases.

3. Online therapy is generally in parity with face to face therapy but is more discrete for those wanting more privacy or not wanting to meet someone face to face.

Clinical outcomes

NHS year April 2019- March 2020

1959 patient entered treatment. 1643 patients completed treatment

Recovery Rate: 56%

Improvement Rate: 60%

Waiting Times:

60% treated with 4 weeks

83% treated with 6 weeks

96% within 18 weeks

There are a range of IAPT service providers across Kent and Medway CCG and you can find your local service here: https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-psychological-therapies-service/

To find out how Ieso can support your IAPT services please email info@iesohealth.com