Child Anxiety Assessment & Treatment for the Cool Kids Online program
Please read through the following information carefully, which will help you determine whether assessment and treatment for the Cool Kids Online program is suitable for your child and family.
About the Centre for Emotional Health
The Centre for Emotional Health is a centre for research excellence within Macquarie University aimed at furthering our understanding of child & adult emotional disorders and improving our methods of treatment. Families who seek help at through the CEH will receive state of the art assessment and treatment based on internationally recognised research much of which has been conducted by our team over the past 18 years.
There is an expectation that by seeking services from a research centre that families will participate in various research activities related to developing better assessment and treatment methods, and, better understanding the causes of anxiety and related disorders.
About the Cool Kids Online Program
Cool Kids Online is a 10-week skills based program consisting of 8 lessons. The program adopts a cognitive behavioural approach, that is, it teaches specific strategies for anxiety management including thinking more realistically, problem solving and gradual exposure to anxiety provoking situations. You and your child will work through the program together, and receive regular scheduled contact from a therapist. This therapist will support you in understanding the program material, assist you to address any problems you may have, and answer any program-related questions.
Who is Cool Kids Online designed for?
The Cool Kids Online Program is designed for children:
- Who are between 7 and 12 years old.
- Where anxiety is the main problem that is being experienced,
- Where anxiety is significantly affecting his or her day-to-day life, and
- Whose parents are proficient in English (e.g., able to read and comprehend one page of an English newspaper).
The Cool Kids Online program will not be suitable for your child if he or she is currently experiencing:
- Significant learning delays, intellectual or developmental disorders.
- Autism or a related disorders.
- A significant unmanaged behavioural disorder.
- Unmanaged psychotic symptoms.
In addition children or adolescents who are considered at-risk due to abuse or neglect, who are currently suicidal and/or are self harming or who have been school refusing for a significant length of time, will not be recommended for the Cool Kids Online program as the only intervention due to the complexity of these situations.
These exclusions are in place to ensure that our treatment program is delivered to children who are most likely to benefit from the program and for whom we are best equipped to offer services. Each child will be carefully assessed to determine whether our treatment is really the most appropriate or whether other programs or services may better meet their needs.
What does the assessment involve?
To determine the suitability of our program we will ask you to complete a clinical assessment. The clinical assessment has two parts, 1) completing a set of online questionnaires and 2) a 3-4 hour telephone interview where child and parent(s) separately speak with a clinician. There are separate online questionnaires for the primary caregiver (the caregiver who will take the role of the child’s coach if they progress to treatment), your child and any additional caregivers. Online questionnaires give us information about your child’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours and include questions related to your own experiences. After the assessment, the assessing clinician will discuss your child with a supervisor and a recommendation for treatment or referral will be communicated to you over the phone. Assessments are valid for 3 months, after which time a reassessment would be needed to ensure that we have current information on your child.
If the Cool Kids Online program is suitable for your child and family, these clinical assessments will be repeated at various stages over time.
Your involvement in these assessments will play an integral role in our ability to offer the Cool Kids Online program to more families in the future. When you and your child have completed all treatment and follow-up assessments, you will be reimbursed $50 for your time.
What treatment will we be offered?
The Cool Kids Online program is based on the same principles as the Centre for Emotional Health’s world renowned face-to-face Cool Kids program, though it is presented via a computer interface. You and your child will work together to learn anxiety management strategies. As your child’s Cool Kids Coach, you will have an active role in their treatment. You will receive brief (10-15 minute) weekly calls from a clinician to support you in placing the Cool Kids skills into practice. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the online delivery of the Cool Kids program to children with anxiety disorders. While all children will receive our Cool Kids Online program your family will be randomly allocated to one of two conditions.
- One condition involves waiting 10 weeks for access to the Cool Kids Online program.
- The other condition involves accessing the Cool Kids program immediately.
Participating in treatment research means: 1) you must be willing to be randomised to either condition (i.e., the condition you are placed in is selected at random, like pulling names out of a hat); 2) you must be willing to participate in assessments at baseline (before knowing your condition), after 10 weeks and/or at the end of treatment and then 6 months after finishing treatment; and 3) that you will not access other treatment for your child’s anxiety for the duration of the research project (i.e., from baseline until 6 months after completing treatment).
If, after assessment, Cool Kids Online is determined to be suitable for your child you will receive an invitation to consent and participate. If it is determined that the Cool Kids Online program would not best serve your child’s needs, we will do our best to provide you with alternative treatment options such as appropriate referrals to other professionals. If, after assessment, you choose not to participate in the Cool Kids Online research program you may request appropriate referrals.
How much will it cost?
In return for your participation in our research there is no cost associated with the assessment or the treatment program.
What do I do now?
If you would like to have your child assessed regarding his/her anxiety and for suitability for the Cool Kids Online program please complete the remainder of this online form. Once we receive the completed form we will contact you to book a time for the assessment. We may also contact you to clarify if the program is likely to be suitable for your child.
Please feel free to contact the Cool Kids Online team on (02) 9850-8715 or via email on coolkids.online@mq.edu.au if you have any questions regarding the Cool Kids Online research program.