Increasing parent help-seeking for child mental health: A study protocol for the growing minds check-in, an online universal screening tool

Talia Carl; Lucy A Tully; Rebecca K McLean; Mark Dadds; David J Hawes; Cathrine Mihalopoulous; Mary Lou Chatterton; Frank Oberklaid; Allison M Waters; Dianne Shanley; Marie B H Yap; Warren G Cann; Thomas Carlick; Jaimie C Northam

doi:10.1016/j.cct.2024.107801

Increasing parent help-seeking for child mental health: A study protocol for the growing minds check-in, an online universal screening tool

Contemp Clin Trials. 2024 Dec 30:107801. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2024.107801. Online ahead of print.

Affiliations

¹ The School of Psychology, The Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Growing Minds Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: talia.carl@sydney.edu.au.
² The School of Psychology, The Faculty of Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Growing Minds Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁴ Centre for Community Child Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁵ School of Applied Psychology and Centre for Mental Health, Griffith University, Mount Gravatt Campus, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
⁶ School of Applied Psychology and Centre for Mental Health, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
⁷ School of Psychological Sciences and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁸ Parenting Research Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

PMID: 39743018
DOI: 10.1016/j.cct.2024.107801

Abstract

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.

Trial registration: ACTRN12624000098538.

Keywords: Child mental health; Help-seeking; Online interventions; Parenting; Protocol; Universal screening.