MENTAL HEALTH
Jon Cousins, founder of Moodscope, the top-ranked online tool in a recent Department of Health competition to find the best healthcare apps and ideas, describes how to make mood tangible, and how this can benefit individuals as well as society more widely.
M
oodscope is an online tool that allows people to regularly measure their
mood, using a series of decisions about their current emotions, based on a prestig- ious psychometric test.
It was created not by a doctor, or by a pro- fessional working in the NHS, but by a per- son who took his healthcare into his own hands, inventing a system to demonstrate evidence of his own mental illness.
Jon Cousins developed this idea into the widely recognised website that helps thou- sands of people everyday. He talked to NHE about how tracking mood patterns helps individuals to understand their own moods and triggers, as well as allowing healthcare professionals to access a quanti- fiable record of the elusive concept of men- tal wellbeing.
Cousins said: “In some ways it is quite im- portant that Moodscope wasn’t developed by a doctor, but by me, as a service user. I think four or five years ago if an initiative had come from a service user there would have probably been more reluctance with- in the NHS to take it seriously. But I’m pleased to note that there seems to be more of a collaborative approach to things these days.”
Maps and apps
In August, the Department of Health launched the competition ‘Maps and Apps’, for the public to highlight the best existing healthcare apps, as well as new ideas. Moodscope received the highest amount of votes from the public and the best user feedback, and as such was ranked the best healthcare app. A showcase of Moodscope and other top-scoring ideas is currently being published on the Maps and Apps website.
46 | national health executive Nov/Dec 11
Cousins said: “Moodscope was nominated by one of our members, which was a com- plete surprise to us! It provided a way for people who had been using Moodscope to start commenting on it in the company of others. We get a lot of feedback from users, but this has been the first time that peo- ple have been able to comment in a public environment and exchange thoughts with each other. It’s brought Moodscope to the attention of the Department of Health; it’s very exciting.”
Charting progress
Moodscope is already being used in the NHS by certain GPs and psychiatrists who recommend it to patients, but cannot be NICE approved for prescription without clinical trial evidence. Research could also help to increase Moodscope’s authority as a mental health tool.
Cousins explained: “Patients are print- ing out their graphs and taking them in to show their doctors, which is quite useful if you want to show that low mood has been going on for a while, or you can start to see some patterns. Somebody with bipolar for instance would be able to see evidence of their mood swinging quite dramatically.”
Research is currently being conducted by the Institute of Psychiatry, which is work-
ing with around 20 patients from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to evaluate the benefits of regularly measuring mood using Moodscope.
Cousins continued: “That research is near- ing completion now and they’re particular- ly interested in the qualitative data as well as the quantitative data. They’re running focus groups so that the patients can talk about how the whole experience has been for them.”
With a little help from your friends
Moodscope can also provide a support sys- tem, in which a friend or two friends of the user receives their score everyday – some- thing which seems to amplify its effect of regulating mood.
“People do respond to having people watch over them,” Cousins said – but this isn’t a role he recommends doctors should fill.
He said: “I wouldn’t see a situation with a GP trying to monitor all of their patients’ moods – that would be impossible.
“But we have heard about some communi- ty psychiatric nurses (CPN) who are receiv- ing the scores of their patients and that’s enabling them to occasionally move their appointments. So if a patient is seeing the
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