EPSRC - NIHR HTC Partnership Award: Social Computing And Mental Health Research Network

据估计，目前精神疾病的严重程度使英国经济每年在医疗保健支出和收入损失方面损失1050亿英镑。因此，解决精神卫生问题是政府明确提出的优先事项。信通技术服务、社交媒体和智能手机应用的广泛使用，在提供临床心理健康服务和更广泛地支持社会心理健康和福祉方面发挥着越来越重要的作用。事实上，对于很大一部分人，尤其是年轻人来说，Facebook、Twitter和YouTube等社交计算技术的使用已经非正式地与日常生活的方方面面交织在一起，包括健康和福祉。因此，医疗保健社区和商业软件开发人员的期望是，数字移动和社交技术可以提供引人注目的、可扩展的、方便的信息访问、社交和同伴支持，以及治疗和共享的自我监控工具和服务。然而，在精神卫生环境中设计、部署、使用和评价这类技术方面存在许多困难的挑战，必须采用多学科、严格和科学的方法加以解决。社会计算的研究领域主要集中在以用户为中心的设计、实现、使用和评估技术，这些技术考虑了日益数字化连接的社会中的社会背景。因此，英国的社会计算研究社区拥有丰富的经验和专业知识，这些经验和专业知识与心理健康服务和系统相关，但通常不是针对心理健康服务和系统。该网络将处理这方面的支持、协调和合作问题，并将两个社区聚集在一起：(i)工程和物理科学（EPS）研究人员在广泛和包容的社会计算旗帜下，涵盖人机交互（HCI）、无处不在和移动计算以及网络科学的子领域；（ii）临床科学家、保健专业人员、商业伙伴、慈善机构、用户群体和关心心理健康和福祉的患者。该网络将与NIHR MindTech医疗保健技术合作中心（HTC）密切合作，参与一系列协调的科学、技术、管理和临床活动，以实现其总体目标，即在社会计算和精神保健之间的边界提供国际领先研究的未来英国能力。

The current extent of ill mental health is estimated to cost the UK economy £105 billion per year in healthcare expenditure and lost revenue. Addressing mental health is therefore a clearly articulated priority for government. The broad use of ICT services, social media and smartphone applications has an increasingly important role to play in the delivery of clinical mental health services and in supporting societal mental health and wellbeing more generally. Indeed, for large sections of the population, and younger people in particular, the use of Social Computing technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is already informally entwined with every facet of everyday life including health and wellbeing. The expectation by the healthcare community, and by commercial software developers, therefore is that digital mobile and social technology can provide compelling, scalable and convenient access to information, social and peer support, as well as therapy and shared self-monitoring tools and services. However, there are a numerous difficult challenges associated with the design, deployment, use and evaluation of such technology in mental health settings which must be solved using multidisciplinary, rigorous and scientific methods. The research field of Social Computing broadly focusses on the user-centred design, implementation, use, and evaluation of technologies that consider social context in an increasingly digitally-connected society. The UK's Social Computing research community therefore has a wealth of experience and expertise that is relevant to, but not typically directed at, mental health services and systems. This network will address issues of support, coordination and collaboration in this context and bring together two communities: (i) engineering and physical sciences (EPS) researchers under the broad, and inclusive, banner of Social Computing covering sub-fields of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), ubiquitous and mobile computing, and web science (ii) clinical scientists, healthcare professionals, commercial partners, charities, user groups and patients who are concerned with mental health and wellbeing. The network will work closely with the NIHR MindTech Healthcare Technology Co-operative (HTC) centre to engage in a range of coordinated scientific, technological, management and clinical activities to realise its overarching aim of pump-priming future UK capacity to deliver internationally-leading research at the boundaries between social computing and mental healthcare.