Digital technology in mental health care

Key messages

• digital technologies are increasingly used in secondary mental health care settings
• co-production with people who experience chronic mental health conditions is essential to effective digital design
• digital tools offer opportunities to improve understanding, monitoring and sharing of mental health data
• innovation is occurring unevenly across services
• evidence on effectiveness and long-term impact remains limited.

Policy implications

• digital mental health tools should be co-produced with service users
• secondary care services need support to evaluate digital interventions robustly
• data governance and information-sharing arrangements are central to safe digital innovation
• implementation should proceed cautiously alongside ongoing evaluation.

Gaps

• lack of long-term outcome studies in secondary mental health care
• small sample sizes limit generalisability
• limited consideration of multiple protected characteristics
• insufficient evidence on equity impacts of digital mental health tools.

Commentary
This paper highlights both the promise and the uncertainty surrounding digital technologies in mental health care. While new tools offer opportunities to enhance data sharing and clinical insight, their success depends heavily on alignment with service users’ needs and experiences.

A recurring theme is the importance of co-production. Digital tools designed without meaningful involvement of people living with mental health conditions risk being poorly adopted or misaligned with real-world care. This is particularly relevant in secondary care, where needs are often complex and long term.

At the same time, the review points to a thin evidence base. Small studies and short follow-up periods make it difficult to judge whether digital interventions improve outcomes or simply add complexity to already stretched services.

Overall, the paper suggests that digital innovation in secondary mental health care should prioritise learning and evaluation over rapid scale-up. Careful design, inclusive involvement and longer-term evidence are needed if technology is to strengthen care without introducing new forms of exclusion or risk.