Sustaining and Scaling Online Support and Intervention (OSI) for child anxiety problems in diverse international settings

Grantholders

  • Prof Cathy Creswell

    University of Oxford, United Kingdom

  • Prof Fareed Minhas

    Shifa Tameer e Millat University, Pakistan

  • Dr Erika Obikane

    National Center for Child Health and Development, Japan

  • Dr John Jamir Benzon Aruta

    De La Salle University, Philippines

  • Prof Trudie Lang

    University of Oxford, United Kingdom

  • Dr Miguel Cordero

    Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile

  • Dr Nuttorn Pityaratstian

    Default Community Account

  • Dr Oliver Harrison

    Koa Health Limited, United Kingdom

Project summary

Online Support and Intervention (OSI) is a brief therapist-guided, parent-led online Cognitive Behaviour Therapy platform for treating anxiety problems in children aged 5-12 years. OSI was codesigned with children, parents/carers, and clinicians in England, has proven clinical and cost-effectiveness in the UK, and is now being implemented in English child mental health services by Koa Health. Using OSI reduces therapist time required which, coupled with excellent outcomes achieved by non-expert practitioners, underscores the potential to scale this approach in diverse settings. This collaboration between researchers, commercial partners, lived experience experts, and key stakeholders from the UK, Japan, Chile, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand aims to work across countries to maximise the intervention's applicability to diverse contexts, ultimately increasing its global reach while ensuring cultural relevance, stakeholder engagement, and rigorous evaluation across settings. We will: 1. Adapt OSI for new settings and populations. 2. Refine identification and assessment procedures for varied contexts. 3. Test the feasibility of adapted procedures. 4. Evaluate real-world clinical and cost-effectiveness 5. Conduct pooled data analyses to maximise insights. 6. Establish the conditions for rapid at-scale implementation. 7. Promote collaboration and shared learning, lived experience and wider stakeholder involvement, and research capacity building throughout.