A child with cancer fills out a paper questionnaire about their worries, but staff are too stretched to follow up, so serious mental health problems go undetected. This project replaces that paper system with augmented reality—a headset that overlays virtual questions and scenarios onto the real clinic room, letting the child see both the clinician and, say, a digital scene about school or home life. The problem is that current manual screening relies on self-initiative and staff reminders, which often fail because of the illness’s nature and limited clinical psychologist capacity. Delays mean simple anxieties escalate into complex conditions requiring intensive specialist care, straining the workforce and creating longer waiting times. If this mixed-reality screening works, it could catch psychosocial needs early, prevent escalation to serious mental health conditions, and reduce the £18.8 billion annual cost of youth mental health to the UK economy. The system also aligns with NHS plans to expand children’s mental health services and deliver care in ways young people say work better for them.
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The diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of chronic illnesses like cancer has a wide-ranging psychosocial impact on patients and their families. NICE (the National Institute for Health Excellence) recommends assessing the psychological and social needs of children and young people with cancer, and their families, at key points in their care to provide timely support. Early detection allows for specialist interventions, preventing escalation to serious mental health conditions and enhancing quality of life. In 2022, a report commissioned by the NHS highlighted the costs associated with mental health in young people under the age of 20 to be a staggering £18.8 billion per year to the UK economy. At the University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire(UHCW), psychosocial screening involves chronically ill children and their parents completing paper questionnaires, including a worry/upset thermometer and problem list. This manual practice is challenging as it relies on self-initiative and staff reminders, which can be inappropriate due to the illness's nature. In addition, the challenge in staff capacity means the psychosocial needs are not being assessed as frequently as per NICE standard. Delays in screening of psychosocial needs result in more complex problems developed over time, which require more intense specialist interventions. With limited clinical psychologist capacity, this will cause a strain in the workforce and create longer waiting times for patients to get the help they need. This highlights the urgency for improving the current psychosocial screening practices to ensure timely and effective support for patients and their families. Hollywood Gaming is leading a project with UHCW to provide Mixed Reality Screening in Psychosocial Paediatrics (MRSiPP) and therapeutic treatments that centre on their expertise in extended reality, gamification and storytelling to deliver to clinician scenarios they want to provide children but cannot, given the limitations of current paper-based solutions. MRSiPP will use augmented reality to mix the real world, where crucially, the patient can see the environment they are in and the clinician, with virtual world overlays that help delve into the young person's psychosocial health regarding their illness, issues at school, or in their homelife with family and friends. This aligns with the commitments of the NHS Long Term Plan and the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to expand mental health services for children and young people, reduce unnecessary delays and deliver care in ways that young people, their families and carers have told us work better for them.
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