How CareLoop impacts health inequalities in severe mental illness

The CareLoop platform is designed to help prevent relapse in people living with psychosis and to help them live more stable lives in the community. Over the 10+ years of development of CareLoop, it has become increasingly clear that our platform will address something equally fundamental – the health inequalities that shape the lives of the people we support.

People living with psychosis face health inequalities on many fronts. These overlapping factors affect life expectancy, access to care, physical health, employment and quality of life. Understanding these inequalities has influenced how we’ve built CareLoop and has made us even more driven to roll out our platform in the communities that need it most across the world.

The patterns of inequality

A look at the data on schizophrenia care in the UK, reveals clear patterns across ethnicity, socioeconomic factors and geography and confirms what many have experienced firsthand.

Ethnicity and diagnosis

Black and Black Caribbean people in the UK are diagnosed with schizophrenia at rates three to five times higher than White British groups. Research has shown the disparity is driven largely by social determinants: urban living, deprivation, discrimination, and racial trauma. These aren’t just statistics – they represent individuals and communities navigating multiple, compounding disadvantages that have been consistently documented but never properly addressed.

Socioeconomic inequality

Nearly 40% of people diagnosed with schizophrenia live in the 20% most deprived areas of England. Mental illness and poverty create a vicious cycle: poverty increases risk while illness makes escaping poverty harder. While over 70% of the general population are employed, just 5 to 15% of people with schizophrenia are in paid employment. This is a gap that affects social connection, daily structure, identity, and hope for the future.

Geography and access

Where you live contributes to both your risk and what support is available. Urban areas with higher deprivation show notably higher rates – London has rates 61% higher of serious mental illness than rural Scotland.

Compounding disadvantages

These inequalities have significant consequences for people’s health. People with serious mental illness experience higher rates of cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases and cancers, typically dying 15-17 years younger than the general population.

Even when support exists, access remains deeply unequal. Black and Black Caribbean service users access talking therapies at considerably lower rates and are more likely to first encounter services through crisis points rather than early intervention.

How CareLoop responds to these inequalities

While our starting point was relapse prevention, we’ve designed CareLoop with a clear understanding that this goal cannot be separated from addressing health inequalities. Our approach tackles multiple barriers simultaneously.

Designing with the communities we serve

We know that building trust requires more than good intentions – it requires genuine partnership with the communities experiencing these inequalities. We’ve partnered with community mental health organisations to ensure our platform reflects the realities of the people we’re designed to support. Our advisory group includes people with lived experience of psychosis from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, who shape and guide our product roadmap. This collaborative approach helps us avoid the pitfall of building solutions in isolation from the people who need them most.

Working towards equity

Our work aligns with the NHS Core 20+5 improvement framework, which identifies very underserved and deprived populations with severe mental illness as a priority area. This national recognition that health inequalities require focused intervention reinforces what we’ve built CareLoop to do.

Pauline Whelan, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at CareLoop Health, said: “The huge impact of health inequalities on people living with psychosis often goes unrecognised, and is sometimes exacerbated by false assumptions – for example, assuming people living with psychosis can’t engage with technology or that those from deprived communities won’t be able to, or want to, access digital services. One of my personal motivations for CareLoop Health is to break down those assumptions. By focusing on populations who are underserved in multiple ways and truly building our approach around their needs, we’re working to ensure that innovation in mental health care reaches those who face the greatest barriers.”

The health inequalities we’ve described affect real people every day – shaping how long they live, what support they can access and how they experience their condition. While CareLoop began with a focus on preventing relapse, this goal is inseparable from addressing the broader inequalities that affect the people we serve.