Tend VR provides a novel way to deliver Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), a NICE recommended therapy for depression. Via a virtual reality headset, the innovation delivers clinically reliable improvements at a time and a place of a service user’s choosing, without the need for a one-to-one therapist or group facilitator.   

Insights

Tend VR-MBCT reduces costs and staff time, whilst improving access and reducing waiting lists. The innovation can also help to address some of the challenges associated with health inequalities, for example there being limited access to increasingly centralised mental health services for people living in rural communities or in communities identified by the Index of Multiple Deprivation as being in the 20% most deprived in the country. 

Equally, we know that many people in the UK find it difficult to access or engage with mental health services that could provide treatments to support recovery from common mental health problems. Demand for mental health service is rising rapidly. England’s NHS mental health services treated a record 3.8 million people in 2023/24, an increase of almost 40% compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic (2018/19) (1). Common mental health difficulties cost the UK economy at least £117.9 billion a year, supporting a strong economic case for investing in timely treatment and prevention (2).  

MBCT – a combination of cognitive therapy, meditation and mindfulness – is a robust, clinically evaluated and effective tool to help reduce depression, stress and anxiety, and to improve low mood (3). 

Borne from founder and CEO’s, Matthew Hoad Robson’s own experiences of poor mental health and the experiences of family members who have been affected by serious mental illness, Matthew is a keen advocate for the availability of effective evidence-based therapies. During the first deployment of Tend VR MBCT Matthew and his team saw substantial reductions in depression and anxiety alongside improvements in overall mental wellbeing and mindfulness skills.  

Intervention

Funding success: Health Innovation East has been working alongside the TEND VR team since November 2022. Directors and several senior advisors have provided guidance on the development of a series of successful funding bids and strengthened the innovation’s evidence base by supporting its deployment outside of a clinical trial setting. The team have also helped to connect the Tend VR to colleagues in the health and care system in the East of England. 

Recent funding successes

Mindset, £275k: Strand 2 – Extended reality for digital mental health.

SBRI, £191,213: Mental health in the agricultural workplace – the accessibility, acceptability and efficacy of Virtual Reality Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy.

Real-world deployment and evaluation: Over the last six-months TEND VR, the University of Manchester, Health Innovation East, and four Mind charities – including Mind in West Essex – have developed and most recently begun a 16-week study further exploring how Tend VR-MBCT helps people experiencing symptoms of depression and/or anxiety.

Between April and July 2025 the partnership will see more than 100 people access Tend VR across nine locations in England and Wales. The study will explore the potential of deploying the innovation in a way that offers equal access to effective therapy and that can be promoted to communities that are typically less able to access mental health treatments in their local mental health services. Specifically, TEND VR’s SBRI grant focusses on delivering VR-MBCT for farming and agricultural staff who by virtue of their work and location find it harder to access traditional mental health services (6). 

Health Innovation East is leading three Real World Evaluations (RWE) for the study – focused on the mode of delivery of Tend VR-MBCT for specific populations (the agricultural community) and persistent mental health problems (treatment resistant depression). The evaluation’s findings will not only explore the barriers and facilitators for implementing Tend VR’s technology, but also analyse the benefits it brings and its cost to health and care systems.  

Impact

“I’ve got hope. I’ve got hope that I’ll be able to deal with certain things… you’ve got to be really kind to yourself, have compassion. It’s taught me that if you are kind to yourself, take things slowly, who knows what might happen.”

Feasibility studies: TEND VR’s immersive MBCT course is delivered via the Meta Quest 3 VR headset. represents a potential step-change in the treatment of low mood, depression and anxiety. Feasibility studies conducted with University College London (UCL) showed course participants experienced large and clinically reliable reductions in depression and anxiety scores: PHQ-9 depression scores decreased from an average of 13.97 to 6.32– from ‘moderately depressed’ to a close to sub clinical score (4) and GAD-7 anxiety scores decreased from an average of 11.71 to 5.5 ‘moderately anxious’ to ‘mildly anxious’, again close to the sub clinical cut off. The effect sizes were very large  –  Cohen’s d 1.49 and 1.67 respectively.  

Of her work with Tend VR, Dr Sarah Robinson, Director of Delivery at Health Innovation East reflects:

“Tend VR-MBCT stands out because of the opportunity it provides for delivering [an alternative to] therapy in a non-clinical setting. It also offers a way to reinforce the messaging of therapy that is delivered by clinicians. Both interventions have great benefits for the NHS talking therapy workforce, which is in such high demand.

“The use of virtual reality within Tend VR’s therapy is remarkable – mindfulness is a hard task to master. People, myself included, are often distracted by the environment that they are in and are drained from the effort of both attending and visualising therapy instructions. The VR modality reduces environmental influences and then goes one step further, offering an alternative calming experience in which to undertake the therapy exercises.

For those using TEND VR, being able to see the therapy tools reduces the need to imagine and do the therapeutic exercise simultaneously – creating a more rewarding and less effortful therapeutic experience.”

The past 12 months: Tend VR has achieved several significant organisational and funding milestones and strengthened its clinical and research capabilities by appointing leading experts. The team’s efforts have led to Tend VR-MBCT being trialled in NHS integrated mental health service pathways for the first time during 2025/26.

Economic impact: during 2024/25 Matthew and his team created three jobs, secured over £900,000 of funding, including £300,00 of investment. The are in the process of showing that they offer an effective service that is around 3 times cheaper than equivalent talking therapies. 

What’s next for Tend VR

The Tend VR team’s vision is to use VR-MBCT to enable scaling for the 300 million+ people around the world who suffer from depression. In the next 12 to 18 months, the path to achieving this ambition centres on driving uptake both in the UK and in Australia, the two launch markets for the company’s products.