Beating the Blues

Diversity & Cultural Sensitivity

Ultrasis are committed to improving access to evidence based treatment for all. We are working hard to ensure that Beating the Blues is easily accessible and meets the needs of the diverse population who experience emotional and mental health difficulties. Beating the Blues was originally developed to ensure that as many people as possible could get access to treatment for depression, something that we are keen to continue as our primary goal.

We have been successful in:

1. Opening up access to people who would not normally use traditional services
2. Reducing waiting time for treatment
3. Making our programs easily understandable and simple to use
4. Working with charities and third sector organisations to make the program more widely available
5. Working with organisations that represent a wide variety of minority groups to gather opinion for continuous improvement and future development
6. Beginning the process of making our programs meet the web accessibility standards
7. Offering translated information for people whose primary language is not English
8. Translating the program into another language
9. Supporting research and audits in new areas of need including co-morbid conditions, cultural needs and disability access
10. Using the skills, knowledge and backgrounds of our own workforce to help inform our developments

We have already begun a number of initiatives to seek opinion from people about what we can do to make Beating the Blues even more inclusive and would ask that if you represent a group or organisation who has an interest in making accessible our evidence based treatment for emotional or psychological health problems please contact us.

Working With Local Communities

There are many organisations and groups working in our communities to help support people to manage their emotional and mental health needs. We work with a broad range of partners from the public, statutory, charitable and commercial sectors to deliver Beating the Blues and help them to Improve Access to Psychological Therapies.

We have been successful in:

1. Offering support to third sector organisations to deliver services
2. Supporting community groups to secure sufficient funding to deliver services
3. Facilitating research and audit programs to help demonstrate new models of care, value for money and clinical outcomes
4. Sponsoring and presenting at local, regional and national events
5. Creating additional jobs in London and the Northwest
6. Working with the Mental Heath Foundation to make programs available free of charge
7. Producing a demonstration video with a wide variety of partners and service users to help explain the benefits of Beating the Blues to potential users of the program
8. Working with patient groups and their representatives to investigate value of CCBT in chronic disease management
9. Working with local groups in the UK, New Zealand, Canada to reach out to people who traditionally don’t engage with services
10. Developing relationships with a variety of faith groups to better understand their needs and the needs of their congregations

Beating the Blues has demonstrated the potential to significantly Improve Access to Psychological Therapies for many people and help support communities to improve their own health and wellbeing. We are proud of our record of delivering a non stigmatising, readily available and person centred treatment program for depression.

Continuous Improvement

All the programs, products and services provided by Ultrasis are evidence based. Beating the Blues was developed by us with the support of colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. Randomised Controlled Trials and Open Studies have all shown that Beating the Blues treats depression and anxiety. In February 2006, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended that Beating the Blues should be made available across the NHS. The majority of Primary Care Trusts in England now use Beating the Blues to treat depression.

We continue to build on this robust evidence base by supporting further trials and audits of the program in partnership with academic, health and voluntary sector colleagues to ensure that Beating the Blues remains the leading computerised cognitive behavioural therapy program.

We are currently engaged in research and audit projects into:

1. Chronic disease management such as Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes and Coronary Heart Disease
2. Delivery by non clinical workforce
3. Comparison against medication (HTA)
4. Use within minority populations

In addition to research and audit we have also continued to develop the technical platform in consultation with users of the program and service providers. We have:

1. Encrypted the program to meet NHS Standards
2. Improved the administration functions to make Beating the Blues easy to use
3. Remodelled the Beating the Blues web site to reflect customer and user needs
4. Created a platform to enable translated versions to be delivered
5. Begun the process of making our programs meet the web accessibility standards

Support and Infrastructure

No computerised cognitive behavioural therapy program can be delivered in isolation, therefore behind the Beating the Blues program there is a high quality and supportive infrastructure.

To support delivery of Beating the Blues we have:

1. Opened up a dedicated customer service office in Warrington
2. A team of 9 regional account managers co-terminus with Strategic Health Authority boundaries
3. Ongoing training and development programs delivered locally
4. A technical support team available to the customer during office hours
5. Achieved ISO27001 to demonstrate our data management standards
6. Robust arrangements to ensure minimum disruption to services
7. Web and hard drive versions of the program available to reflect customer needs
8. Provided a range of leaflets, posters and support materials
9. Automatic emails to help guide you through the program
10. A National Framework agreement with NHS PASA to support commissioning by the NHS
11. A compliments and complaints process

We are also able to provide additional services to meet specific customer requirements such as 24/7 telephonic support, bespoke training sessions, management support and fully delivered solutions.

We have already begun a number of initiatives to seek opinion from people about what we can do to make Beating the Blues even more supported and welcome your views, so please contact us.

Confidentiality, Safety and Security of Information

Confidentiality and security of your data is extremely important to us at Ultrasis

We know how much value the people who use our programs place on security and confidentiality because they tell us that it is one of their highest concerns. The people who purchase our programs: NHS Trusts, Employers, Local Authorities, Government agencies insist on the highest standards. That is why we take these matters seriously and lead the industry in our efforts.

Fully encrypted to meet NHS standards

The public sector have implemented stringent guidelines to ensure that information being held about people is safe and secure that's why we have ensured that Beating the Blues is fully encrypted to meet NHS standards. We are the only provider of CCBT that can make this claim so you can feel safe in the NHS standards. We are the only provider of CCBT that can make this claim so you can feel safe in the knowledge that your data is safe.

Ultrasis awarded ISO 27001 data security accreditation.

Ultrasis have also invested significantly in its data security and recently received certified accreditation under ISO27001 (the recognised International Standard for managing data and Information security). ISO 27001 ensures Ultrasis uses industry best practises to protect all data and information it handles. No other provider of computerised cognitive behavioural therapy meets these standards. Another reason why you should insist on using Beating the Blues to help treat your depression.