Award-winning online mental wellbeing service Big White Wall (BWW) is delighted to announce it has been successful in its bid for funding from the Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT). This funding, combined with monies from the Department of Health earlier in the year, means BWW will roll out its service via an app which can be used on all mobile devices.

The app will enable new and existing Armed Forces members of the Big White Wall community to access help and support on the go, at any time when they need it. The need for an app is clear as a third of BWW members are already logging in via mobile and tablet, and this number is growing all the time.

Jen Hyatt, CEO Big White Wall said: ‘We are absolutely delighted to have received the support of Forces in Mind Trust. Extending BWW’s 24/7 service to all mobile devices will be transformative as one third of people use these platforms for our services.  It means we will be in a position to help more people get the help and support they need, at a time and through the platform they choose.

“A large number of our members from the Armed Forces Community will directly benefit.  We very much look forward to working closely with Forces in Mind Trust and applaud their understanding of the value of digital mental health support.”

Air Vice-Marshal Ray Lock, Chief Executive of FiMT, said: ‘The concept of Big White Wall really lends itself to being delivered through a mobile app, and this project fits well within FiMT’s mission to support innovation and research to improve the mental health of Service personnel and their families undergoing transition from military to civilian life. Big White Wall has been a resounding success; it is the anonymity, relaxed atmosphere and lack of stigma that give the whole Armed Forces Community, including Service and ex-Service personnel and their families, the chance to get help and support, and to form bonds within a safely monitored environment.’

The app is currently in development and should be launched early 2014.

For more information about the Forces in Mind Trust and their involvement with the Big White Wall project, please contact: Alice Farrow at The PR Officeafarrow@theproffice.com  / mobile: 07788 540 924 / direct dial: 0207 284 6955.

For more information about Big White Wall, please contact: Sylvia Christie at Big White Wall at sylvia.christie@bigwhitewall.com /direct dial: 020 7060 1677.

About Big White Wall:

www.bigwhitewall.com is a digital mental health and wellbeing service that has been designated a High Impact Innovation by the National Health Service. It places people at the centre of their own care and delivers personalised pathways to recovery through a range of safe therapeutic services from the comfort of patients’ own homes. BWW is professionally staffed 24/7, and free to 22% of the UK adult population, including all UK serving personnel, veterans and their families.

Background:

BWW operates within a governance framework jointly developed with clinicians at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust (TPFT).  All Wall Guides are supervised and trained by clinicians from TPFT.  Big White Wall is a community of people who are experiencing common mental health problems who are supported to self-manage their own mental health

Big White Wall has supported over 11,000 people to date and has been commissioned by Clinical Commissioning Groups, the Department of Health, Help for Heroes, employers and many others to reach thousands more.

Awards include: NHS High Impact Innovation – Digital First; Mind Media Awards 2012, The Mark Hanson Digital Media Award – Finalist;  Guardian Public Services Awards 2010 – Winner ‘Transformation Award’; eGovernment National Awards – Finalist; HSJ Awards 2010, Innovation in Mental Health – Finalist ; NHS Health and Social Care Awards, Mental Health and Wellbeing 2010 – Finalist; National eWell-Being Awards 2010 – Finalist; Media Guardian Award 2009 for Innovation in Community Engagement – Winner

Big White Wall’s services include:

  • Digital Assessment: Online tool to assess common mental health problems and co-morbid physical conditions, due to launch in Beta in Sept 2013.
  • Support Network: A community of peers, professionally staffed 24/7, which enables safe, anonymous support through talking therapies and creative self-expression.
  • Guided Support: A range of self-managed and facilitated programmes for individuals and groups. Programmes include anxiety, depression, sleep, smoking and alcohol use.Live
  • Therapy: A range of real time therapies by instant text, audio or video from a panel of approved BWW therapists offering CBT, IPT, counselling and integrative counselling. Alternatively local services can provide telehealth services using their own clinicians through this platform.

One Big White Wall member said: “I feel that the support given by BWW is fantastic. You are not judged and you can be yourself. Most of us are very good at hiding our feelings. This is the only place I have felt comfortable in expressing myself.”

How Big White Wall has helped others1

  • 75% of members talk about an issue for the first time on Big White Wall
  • 95% of members feel better as a result

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