NHS uses behavioural insight to improve mental health support

The NHS and Public Health England wanted to reach individuals in London experiencing mental health and wellbeing challenges who would not naturally come forward for support. Many people were suffering in silence, often unaware that their symptoms warranted professional help.

The challenge was to bring together complex and disconnected digital data sources across search, social media and behavioural platforms to create a scalable, personalised public health approach - without defaulting to building just another app or website.

We used empathy mapping and customer journey analysis to learn how the team identified how people moved from unawareness to seeking support and ultimately advocacy.

Multiple data sources such as Google search trends, Pulsar, Facebook, Brandwatch and Twitter helped to uncover behavioural patterns, motivations and intent signals related to mental wellbeing.

This approach enabled the NHS to better understand audience needs, identify opportunities for microtargeting and create recommendations to engage users with personalised digital health support at scale.

The project demonstrated how behavioural insights and data can transform public health engagement. By connecting behavioural insights with customer experience strategy, we helped the NHS uncover scalable ways to support mental wellbeing through targeted, data-led steps.

The work helped stakeholders move beyond traditional digital thinking and recognise the value of data as the foundation for effective digital health services.