Glasgow Caledonian University and Scottish Action for Mental Health KTP 24_25 R4

A mental health charity is building a digital front door that uses artificial intelligence to guide people to the right support, rather than making them navigate a maze of services alone. Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH) currently offers both in-person and online services, but there is no intelligent system to match a person’s needs to the right resource at the right time. People seeking help often encounter fragmented pathways, repeated assessments, and long waits. This project embeds clinical oversight principles into an AI-driven gateway that can triage, signpost, and connect users to SAMH’s place-based and digital services. The research combines data analytics, AI tool development, and psychological expertise to ensure the system is safe, ethical, and clinically informed. If successful, the gateway could reduce the burden on frontline staff, shorten the time between a person seeking help and receiving it, and improve outcomes by directing people to evidence-based interventions. It also builds lasting capability within SAMH to develop and improve digital mental health tools responsibly. The work is applied and practical—it aims to change how a major UK charity delivers care, not to discover fundamental principles of psychology or AI.