A-CAT: Accessing Child Anxiety Treatment Version 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A-CAT: Accessing Child Anxiety Treatment
IRAS ID
212051
Contact name
Cathy Creswell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Reading
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 17 days
Research summary
Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health disorders experienced by children, and are associated with significant negative outcomes. Effective treatments for anxiety disorders in children exist, but less than one third of children with an anxiety disorder actually access professional help. These poor rates of treatment access are not well understood. A child with an anxiety disorder will rarely seek help alone; and therefore an improved understanding of the challenges parents face seeking and accessing treatment, and factors that make this process easier would help identify areas to target in order to improve access.
This study builds on our ongoing work exploring parental help seeking for child anxiety difficulties among families recruited in the community, and will provide corresponding data among families who have all sought help and all accessed treatment. Together this body of work has the overarching aim of informing the development of targeted interventions designed to improve rates of access to treatment for child anxiety disorders.
This study will recruit parents of children (aged 7-12) who have been referred to Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (BHFT) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) for problems relating to anxiety. The study will consist of two phases. The first phase is a qualitative study designed to explore parents’ experiences of seeking professional help and successfully accessing treatment for child anxiety difficulties. During the first phase, parents will take part in a qualitative interview and complete short questionnaires. The second phase will involve collecting quantitative data on the barriers and facilitators experienced by parents during the process of seeking and accessing help for child anxiety difficulties, and will involve parents completing questionnaires.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0352
Date of REC Opinion
30 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion