IMPACT SNAPSHOT: SPIDER Digital Skills Project for People with Severe Mental Illness

We quantified significant digital exclusion among people with severe mental illness and developed tailored skills training to address the 42% who lack basic digital skills.

#Sickness to Prevention
#Hospital to Community

The Yorkshire and Humber ARC’s SPIDER project (Skills and Proficiency in Digital Essential Requirements) quantified the digital divide affecting people with severe mental illness (SMI) and developed targeted interventions to address this inequity.

Key Impacts:
• Conducted the first standardised assessment of digital skills among people with SMI in the UK (249 participants).
• Revealed that 42% of people with SMI lack basic “foundation digital skills” compared to just 19% of the general population.
• Identified that 46% of people with SMI lack “skills for life” (like online banking) versus 22% in the general population.
• Demonstrated that while over 80% of people with SMI have home internet access and devices, nearly half use the internet “just a little” or “not at all”.
• Co-produced tailored digital skills resources with people with lived experience, including digital credit cards and targeted guidance materials.
• Generated an NIHR National Alert highlighting the significant digital exclusion among this population.
• Created low-cost digital skills training courses now being tested in Recovery Colleges and libraries.

The project has provided crucial evidence of a significant digital divide that risks worsening health inequalities as healthcare services increasingly move online. Beyond documenting the problem, SPIDER has developed practical, co-designed solutions to help people with SMI build confidence and skills to access online health information and services. This work has created a pathway to digital inclusion that could significantly improve health outcomes for this vulnerable population.