Dr-Julian to provide online mental health platform for North East and North Cumbria

Mental health platform Dr-Julian is set to provide an exciting new service after winning funding from NHS North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB).

Dr-Julian, one of the UK’s fastest-growing mental health platforms and care delivery partners, is one of only six companies selected by an expert panel after more than 130 bidders proposed ideas for new digital health services.

The initiative forms part of the region’s £19m NHS WorkWell programme, aimed at helping people address health problems that make it harder for them to stay in or return to work.

Dr Julian Nesbitt, founder and CEO of Dr-Julian, said: “North East and North Cumbria shows what is possible when clinical care and digital systems are designed together.

“This is not simply an app rollout – it is healthcare infrastructure that enables whole regions to deliver consistent, high-quality support for staff, practitioners and communities.

We are moving beyond service delivery to provide the platforms underpinning modern wellbeing, therapy and population-level support.

“This programme demonstrates that regions do not need to build new systems to modernise care — with the right platform, they can rapidly move from fragmented provision to a unified, coherent model.”

The North East and North Cumbria region has some of the highest rates of people out of work due to mental ill-health, making this investment particularly significant.

Through this funding Dr-Julian will provide 24/7 access to wellbeing tools, specialist clinicians, and virtual appointments for patients referred by the region’s NHS WorkWell advisors.

In addition, it will provide a dedicated online wellbeing and therapy service for NHS staff across the region.

Dr-Julian’s new 24/7 online patient resource offers a comprehensive digital library, personalised care pathways, locally relevant information, a single route for engagement and follow-up, and configurable modules that adapt to different workforce groups, age groups and population needs.

Its online NHS staff wellbeing hub provides rapid access to therapy and structured psychological support, with personalised dashboards offering self-help tools and wellbeing resources.

The service also includes clinician-matching through Dr-Julian’s national practitioner network, hybrid digital and face-to-face care, and a single unified system.

The programme builds on work led by Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria, which partnered with the ICB to identify and implement innovations that help people remain economically active.

The North East and North Cumbria region has some of the highest rates of people out of work due to mental ill-health.

Dr-Julian’s platform is designed for deployment across other regions and care systems, enabling NHS organisations to adopt the same model without additional infrastructure build.

Following the North East and North Cumbria launch, several other ICBs are now exploring similar approaches.

Dr-Julian is a UK mental health platform and clinical provider delivering therapy and specialist mental health services, workforce wellbeing programmes, digital infrastructure for NHS organisations and employers, personalised digital tools and dashboards, and large-scale regional deployments.