TY - JOUR
T1 - Increasing parent help-seeking for child mental health
T2 - a study protocol for the growing minds check-in, an online universal screening tool
AU - Carl, Talia
AU - Tully, Lucy A.
AU - McLean, Rebecca K.
AU - Dadds, Mark R.
AU - Hawes, David J.
AU - Mihalopoulous, Cathrine
AU - Chatterton, Mary Lou
AU - Oberklaid, Frank
AU - Waters, Allison M.
AU - Shanley, Dianne
AU - Yap, Marie B.H.
AU - Cann, Warren G.
AU - Carlick, Thomas
AU - Northam, Jaimie C.
PY - 2025/2
Y1 - 2025/2
N2 - Background: Early identification and intervention for mental health (MH) problems in childhood offers lifelong benefits. Many children with MH problems do not receive appropriate help. To address this need, an online universal MH screening tool, the Growing Minds Check-In for parents/caregivers (GMCI-P), was developed to provide feedback to parents on their children's MH, identify children at risk of MH problems, and link parents to evidence-based online programs/information, with the goal of facilitating parent help-seeking, and ultimately reducing the prevalence of child MH problems. Methods/design: A randomised controlled trial (RCT) with 440 parents/caregivers will be conducted to 1) examine the efficacy of GMCI-P for increasing parent help-seeking; 2) explore acceptability; and 3) cost-effectiveness. Participants will be Australian parents/caregivers with a child aged from birth to 17 years, 6 months, who will be randomly allocated to GMCI-P (intervention) or waitlist control (WLC) group, and complete baseline measures. The intervention group will complete the GMCI-P immediately, the post-GMCI-P intervention questions, a three-month and six-month follow-up. The WLC group will receive access to GMCI-P after their three-month follow-up but will not be followed up further. The primary outcome is parent help-seeking behaviour for child MH, and secondary outcomes include child MH, parenting, parent wellbeing, acceptability, cost-effectiveness, and unintended negative effects. Discussion: The results from this study will provide efficacy, acceptability and cost-effectiveness data on a universal online, parent-report child MH Check-In. These results can be used to inform public policy on universal screening for child MH.
AB - Background: Early identification and intervention for mental health (MH) problems in childhood offers lifelong benefits. Many children with MH problems do not receive appropriate help. To address this need, an online universal MH screening tool, the Growing Minds Check-In for parents/caregivers (GMCI-P), was developed to provide feedback to parents on their children's MH, identify children at risk of MH problems, and link parents to evidence-based online programs/information, with the goal of facilitating parent help-seeking, and ultimately reducing the prevalence of child MH problems. Methods/design: A randomised controlled trial (RCT) with 440 parents/caregivers will be conducted to 1) examine the efficacy of GMCI-P for increasing parent help-seeking; 2) explore acceptability; and 3) cost-effectiveness. Participants will be Australian parents/caregivers with a child aged from birth to 17 years, 6 months, who will be randomly allocated to GMCI-P (intervention) or waitlist control (WLC) group, and complete baseline measures. The intervention group will complete the GMCI-P immediately, the post-GMCI-P intervention questions, a three-month and six-month follow-up. The WLC group will receive access to GMCI-P after their three-month follow-up but will not be followed up further. The primary outcome is parent help-seeking behaviour for child MH, and secondary outcomes include child MH, parenting, parent wellbeing, acceptability, cost-effectiveness, and unintended negative effects. Discussion: The results from this study will provide efficacy, acceptability and cost-effectiveness data on a universal online, parent-report child MH Check-In. These results can be used to inform public policy on universal screening for child MH.
KW - Child mental health
KW - Help-seeking
KW - Online interventions
KW - Parenting
KW - Protocol
KW - Universal screening
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85214923937&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cct.2024.107801
DO - 10.1016/j.cct.2024.107801
M3 - Article
C2 - 39743018
AN - SCOPUS:85214923937
SN - 1551-7144
VL - 149
JO - Contemporary Clinical Trials
JF - Contemporary Clinical Trials
M1 - 107801
ER -