Brian Pope of Lincs Therapy – a provider of mental health & psychological support services – talks about how the #GrowMySME Digital Catalyst scheme has helped the business to diversify the business’s services via virtual delivery.

Traditionally, psychotherapy is carried out face to face, and yet since the onset of Covid-19, all of Lincs Therapy’s services have had to be delivered virtually. In light of this, Brian advises that in hindsight, many clients prefer to attend an appointment via virtual delivery for reasons of anonymity, and to also counter the anxiety that an in-person appointment may bring. The business now believes that virtual delivery is “here to stay” and have fully embraced this digital approach to service delivery.

Brian and Lincs Therapy first became aware of Digital Catalyst after exploring ways that the company could make their service available to a wider range of people. Coincidentally, this cooincided with the launch of Digital Catalyst and Lincs Therapy became the first business to enrol onto the scheme.

The digital maturity assessment that the business undertook shortly after enrolling onto Digital Catalyst highlighted many areas where digital technology could be adopted – many of these areas had never been thought about before by the business.

Brian had never previously come across the concept of a ‘digitally disruptive period’ and he has found this profoundly impacting on the opportunities that companies like Lincs Therapy can now access.

Digital Catalyst has helped Lincs Therapy by raising the business’s awareness of the wealth of opportunity available via digital delivery; this being part of the ‘wave of change’ that the digital revolution – the so called ‘fourth industrial revolution’ – has brought to doing business.

Brian would encourage any business to “go for it” and get involved with Digital Catalyst, advising others to “go into it with an open mind”. The business found the overall process very constructive, and it has forced Brian and his colleagues to “demolish the traditional ways” that they had been doing things. Digital Catalyst therefore helped the company to see a new direction and opportunity, and then supported them to explore ways to move in that new direction and capitalise on the opportunity.

As a result of Digital Catalyst, the company has developed a number of new virtually delivered brands; one of which, ‘Lincs Clinics’, quickly become oversubscribed.  Another new brand still in development is highly innovative and has resulted in the business collaborating with the University of Lincoln to explore a virtual-reality based ‘proof of concept’.

Overall, Digital Catalyst has helped Lincs Therapy to:

• Generate more referrals for services
• Develop and implement new services
• Aid overall business growth via diversification

July 2021