Devon Partnership NHS Trust research studies feature in Monthly NIHR Bulletin

Posted by Devon Partnership Trust in CAMHS, Research on 29th January, 2021

The NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) Clinical Research Network South West Peninsula give updates regarding NIHR CRN research in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and in the January issue, have included updates on two studies recently opened by the Research and Development team at Devon Partnership NHS Trust.

The two Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) studies, ATTEND and Co-CAT have been included in this bulletin, with links to full news stories on the website. Please click here for the bulletin and to read news stories about these studies.

To find out more about the studies, see below.

Co-CAT

In the context of COVID-19, NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) face major challenges in providing psychological treatments that (i) work when delivered remotely, and (ii) can be delivered efficiently to manage an anticipated increase in referrals as social distancing measures are relaxed. Anxiety problems are a common reason for referral to CAMHS, children with pre-existing anxiety problems are particularly vulnerable in the context of COVID-19, and there are concerns about likely increases in childhood anxiety as schools reopen.

We worked with children, parents and NHS clinicians to develop an online program (the OSI platform) that parents/carers of children with anxiety disorders work through with remote support from a CAMHS therapist. We will now test whether the OSI platform together with therapist support works as well as what CAMHS are currently offering to help children with anxiety problems (while social distancing measures are in place and in the post COVID-19 recovery phase), and whether OSI as delivered with therapist support brings wider benefits to families and CAMHS. We will also provide an understanding of parents' and therapists' experiences of digital treatments in CAMHS in the context of COVID-19. This research has the potential to create a step change in the digital delivery of treatments in CAMHS, bringing benefits in the COVID-19 context and beyond.

ATTEND:

Young people with depression and their parents, or carers, are being invited to take part in a new mindfulness research study being run by specially trained clinicians from Child and Family Heath Devon and DevonPartnership NHS Trust. The NIHR-funded ATTEND study (Adolescents and carers using mindfulness Therapy To END depression) will investigate whether mindfulness can help young people aged 14-17 and their families to learn to recognise unhelpful thoughts and feelings, and to find new ways of dealing with stress, so that symptoms of depression improve and are less likely to come back in the future. The study is the first randomised controlled trial of a new treatment called Mindfulness for Adolescents and parents or Carers (MAC) and will involve 40 young people and their parents or carers in Devon and London, 20 in each area. Half of the young people will be offered MAC and half will continue with treatment as usual. This is a small pilot study to test if young people are willing to take part in this research and are open to randomisation. The teams hope to run a much larger study in the future with many more young people from different geographical areas. Eligible young people and their families will be contacted through CAMHS and offered the chance to participate.