When 1.6 million people sit on NHS mental health waiting lists, the problem isn’t just capacity. It’s the entire delivery model.
James Priestley built VÕS HELP Limited to prove that mental health support doesn’t require 12-week waiting periods or £200-per-hour therapy sessions. The platform connects people in crisis to qualified counselors in under 60 seconds, a response time that questions fundamental assumptions about how mental health services operate in the United Kingdom. The company received a 2026 Global Recognition Award for this work, but the validation comes from 320 counselors who have signed on and 15 user testimonials describing it as urgently needed in the sector.
The traditional model is straightforward: people wait weeks or months for NHS appointments, or they pay private therapists rates that exclude most of the population. VÕS HELP operates on neither timeline. The platform requires only WiFi and charges £20 or £40 per session, with no monthly fees, no long-term contracts, no appointment scheduling. It’s mental health care that functions like emergency services should: immediately, when needed.
The Cost Of Waiting
Mental health conditions cost the UK economy £56 billion annually in lost productivity. Employers lose over £800 per employee per year to absence and presenteeism tied to mental health issues. Traditional Employee Assistance Programmes and NHS services can’t provide timely support during acute episodes, the moments when immediate intervention prevents escalation.
Priestley identified two structural failures: insufficient provision and catastrophic wait times. Some NHS services require nearly two years from referral to treatment. When waiting times average 12 to 30 weeks depending on region, manageable conditions become entrenched problems requiring more intensive intervention. The system converts treatable crises into chronic conditions through delay.
VÕS HELP eliminates this entirely. The pay-as-you-go model removes financial barriers while delivering year-round workforce support for approximately £200 per employee, which is a quarter of the average sickness absence cost. The economics work because the platform prevents long-term absence and staff turnover rather than managing the aftermath.
Building For Crisis Conditions
Priestley’s background matters when building systems that function under pressure. He won Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins Series 5 in 2020, completing a selection process that replicates UK Special Forces training. The program tests decision-making under conditions designed to break participants. This experience proved useful when building a mental health platform in one of the most regulated sectors in British business.
His law degree provides the regulatory expertise the sector demands: compliance, safeguarding policy, data protection, corporate governance. Before founding VÕS HELP, he built and sold a profitable business, proving his ability to identify market opportunities and execute exits. The combination creates a founder profile suited to disrupting a sector where good intentions routinely fail to scale.
The dual structure reflects this pragmatism. VÕS HELP operates as a commercial platform while FAST HELP CIC functions as a not-for-profit social enterprise delivering subsidized and free support through prescribed social care, school safeguarding programs, and veteran services. The model serves both corporate markets and populations unable to afford private care, aligning with NHS social prescribing strategies while delivering measurable public value.
Measuring What Matters
Global Recognition Awards evaluated VÕS HELP using the Rasch model, creating linear scales that allow precise comparisons across categories. The company scored 5 out of 5 across all innovation criteria: novelty, market impact, technological advancement, addressing global challenges, adoption rate, and disruption of existing paradigms. The results place VÕS HELP among the most effective mental health solutions the program has evaluated. The validation comes through quantitative analysis rather than subjective assessment.
Real-world traction comes from deployment across multiple UK cities, 320 onboarded counselors, and user testimonials that describe the platform as needed. Priestley has positioned the company for international expansion across Europe, the United States, and Commonwealth territories through corporate licensing, government frameworks, and university wellbeing networks.
The platform combines technology with human connection, rejecting AI-driven alternatives in favor of conversations between trained professionals and people in crisis. Alex Sterling, spokesperson for Global Recognition Awards, described the achievement: “James Priestley has shown that effective innovation in mental health requires more than technology. It demands elite resilience, regulatory expertise, commercial execution, and a steadfast dedication to human connection. VÕS HELP has built what’s needed to save lives at scale.”
Speed As A System Feature
Mental health crises operate on timelines that appointment systems can’t accommodate. When someone experiences acute distress, waiting days or weeks means the intervention arrives after the crisis has either resolved or escalated. VÕS HELP changes this equation by providing immediate access to qualified support, altering how mental health services respond to urgent need.
The model creates sustainable employment for counselors who face economic pressures in a sector that often undervalues their expertise while simultaneously addressing the access crisis that defines UK mental health care. The platform works because it solves problems for both sides of the equation: people who need immediate help and professionals who need viable work arrangements.
James now has his sights set on another fund raising event for Military personnel and active duty families.
James will be attempting to break a Guinness World Record in December 2026 for the Longest distance rowed in 24 hours on a concept 2 rowing machine. All funds raised will support free calls via VÕS HELP for Ministry of Defence staff and armed services.
Priestley has built what the system needed but couldn’t deliver on its own. Millions have struggled with delays, cost barriers, and insufficient provision. Better systems were always possible. They just required someone willing to build them.
