People living with long-term physical health conditions like diabetes are more likely than the general population to experience mental ill-health. As well as direct effects on emotional wellbeing, depression and anxiety can affect a person’s ability to manage their diabetes by adhering to treatment and engaging in self-care behaviours, which leads to poorer physical health outcomes.
Mental healthcare is therefore an essential component of effective diabetes treatment. However, many people experience difficulties accessing the psychological therapy they need. As a provider of digital CBT, ieso can help to bridge this gap by scaling access to effective psychological therapy tools.
This Diabetes Week, we are pleased to announce that we are collaborating with The University of Manchester to understand which subgroups of people with diabetes could benefit most from digital psychological therapy.
The academic-industry partnership is funded by Translation Manchester and Wellcome, and brings together ieso's expertise in mental health science, clinical psychology, and digital therapy, and the University of Manchester’s expertise in health data science, diabetes, and integrated physical and mental healthcare. Together, we seek to generate insights that can be translated into new digital tools that improve physical and mental health outcomes for those living with diabetes, and deliver cost savings for healthcare systems.
Dr Juhi Gupta, Lecturer in Health Data Sciences at the University of Manchester said: “We aim to understand which interventions are beneficial to people with both diabetes and poor mental health. After successfully securing pump-priming funding from Translation Manchester-Wellcome, this project is underway and unravelling interesting findings.”
Dr Louise Marshall, Director of Mental Health Sciences at ieso said: “By understanding which types of treatment are most effective for whom, we can develop precision digital psychological therapies that improve both the mental and physical health of those living with diabetes. Longer term, it could pave the way for better integration of physical and mental healthcare across a breadth of long-term conditions.”
Find out more about Translation Manchester’s Innovation Labs here.
