Digital care built to prevent mental health crisis and relapse

Around 75% of mental health beds in the UK are occupied by someone experiencing a relapse. CareLoop aims to reduce this, using a mobile app, proprietary algorithm and clinician dashboard to track daily symptoms and provide timely, remote intervention to prevent crisis and keep people living well in their communities. Thanks to deep, long‑term collaboration between researchers, clinicians, engineers and people with lived experience, CareLoop is helping NHS teams move from crisis response to earlier, preventative care.

How the impact happens 

CareLoop is a digital platform designed for people living with severe mental illness, such as psychosis and schizophrenia. A mobile app helps them track symptoms daily and receive timely support, thanks to data-driven monitoring, alerts and a direct link to clinicians. A series of randomised controlled trials have confirmed CareLoop to be safe, acceptable and effective, providing a strong evidence base for its wider adoption. 

The new tool demonstrates that meaningful impact in mental health care depends on trust across disciplines and systems, and crucially, with the people whose lives are shaped by relapse and recovery. The CareLoop platform unfolded through collaboration between NHS clinicians, researchers, technologists and people with lived experience learning together. Today, the CareLoop Health spin‑out is accelerating the development of an approved, deployable product for NHS services.

Professor Shôn Lewis, a CareLoop Health co-founder, along with Professors John Ainsworth, Sandra Bucci and Pauline Whelan, plus Zoë Blake (Founding CEO of CareLoop Health), reflects that their way of working was always grounded in care rather than technology: “Right from the very start, our motivation has always been to improve care for those living with serious mental health conditions,” says Shôn. That focus shaped how the team operated. Early findings challenged assumptions about engagement, showing that people with psychosis could meaningfully report their own experiences using the app. But translating that insight into practice required humility. Rather than following a fixed pathway, the team learned by listening and adapting alongside NHS partners. 

From evidence to implementation

As the work moved towards implementation, new voices became central. But Zoë says that everyone still shared the belief that sustained impact meant staying close to purpose: “As a founding team, we all believe technology can help shift care for people living with severe and enduring mental illness away from crisis response to preventative support.” This shift required changes to the workforce and new approaches. NHS teams, already operating under significant pressure, raised legitimate concerns about increased workload and potential risks to safe, effective care.  

“What mattered most was building something people would actually use, trust and find helpful in their everyday lives,” Shôn notes. 

Sandra fully agrees: “We have learnt to start with the end in mind – to think about who needs to be in the room from day one. If we want to scale up and get these tools into the hands of the people we’re trying to help, we need the different voices early on, otherwise you risk being sidetracked away from the end goal.” 

Those differences forced conversations and adaptation. Researchers slowed down. Workflows were simplified. Training was redesigned. Throughout, people with lived experience shaped decisions about tone, safety and trust. What emerged was not just a digital tool, but a way of working – one where impact grew through listening, iteration and shared responsibility for the collective good. 

Moving forward 

Early trials demonstrated high engagement with daily symptom reporting and showed how real‑time data improved clinical conversations and informed earlier treatment adjustments. As CareLoop continues to evolve, its interdisciplinary principles now guide how new adaptations are developed and evaluated for other conditions characterised by recurring episodes, such as bipolar disorder.  

NHS partnership remains central. Thanks to a NICE Early Value Assessment, the CareLoop system now has a strong, evidence-backed endorsement that the technology shows promise and warrants accelerated evidence‑building as part of a potential pathway toward national guideline adoption. 

CareLoop Health is working closely with trusts, clinicians and digital teams to refine implementation, strengthen workforce training and improve integration with electronic health records. This focus on the realities of care delivery reflects a shared belief, as Zoë puts it: “Our role as a business is to get CareLoop into the hands of those in most need. By doing so we are putting world leading research into practical use and helping to transform care for people living with severe and enduring mental illness.” 

International pilots in Ohio and Massachusetts are now contributing system-level insights that feed back into research and development. Investment has supported growth in operational capacity, while close ties to the University ensure the project remains evidence led. By continuing to learn alongside partners across research, practice and lived experience, CareLoop Health and its many collaborators are helping to shape a future where preventative mental health care is both scalable and grounded in trust.