Assuring children access to the highest quality mental health care is a top national priority. Yet, quality of care continues to be highly variable in traditional service settings. Novel, scalable solutions are needed to address modifiable quality-of-care indicators in sustainable ways. To this end, provider fidelity and children's engagement are key correlates of clinical outcome and practical targets for intervention. There is tremendous opportunity to address both through technology. Studies in child education show that interactive games, touch- screen learning, and demonstration videos enhance engagement, knowledge, motivation, and learning. These benefits also may extend to the therapeutic context, where strategic integration of technology-based activities may enhance children's learning, strengthen the therapeutic alliance, and keep providers on protocol. We are in the final stages of an NIMH R34 in which we piloted a patient- and provider-informed tablet-based toolkit designed to facilitate delivery of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) ? a treatment that was selected because it addresses a wide range of symptoms using techniques shared by other treatments for emotional and behavioral disorders. The tablet-based toolkit consists of numerous components (e.g., videos, interactive games, drawing applications) that are designed to facilitate provider-patient interactions in a way that enhances children's engagement and supports adherence to the treatment model. The tablet-based toolkit was very well received by children, caregivers, and providers in our pilot work. Moreover, all benchmarks for feasibility outlined in our NIMH R34 application were met or exceeded. We now propose to conduct a hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial to examine the extent to which the tablet intervention may improve fidelity, engagement, and children's mental health outcomes. We will conduct a randomized controlled trial with 120 mental health providers and 360 families in partnership with dozens of clinics in the Carolinas and Florida. Providers will be assigned randomly to tablet-facilitated vs. standard TF-CBT. Youth aged 8-16 years with clinically elevated symptoms of PTSD will be recruited. Baseline and 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month post-baseline assessments will be conducted by independent, blind evaluators. Sessions will be videorecorded for observational coding of engagement and fidelity by independent raters blind to study hypotheses. We will also examine costs and conduct semi-structured interviews with families, providers, supervisors, and agency leaders to inform future dissemination and implementation initiatives. Technology-based resources that are scalable, easy to use, and designed for efficient integration into everyday practice may have sustained national impact. The return on investment of these initiatives will ultimately rest on their potential to improve the spread of best-practice treatments and the quality with which they are delivered to the children who need them.
Nearly 9 million U.S. children (1 in 8) meet criteria for at least one mental health disorder at any point in time. Hundreds of treatments exist for these disorders, but mental health service delivery is highly variable in community practice settings and new solutions are needed to improve provider fidelity and children's engagement in sustainable ways. This project will test a new, tablet-based approach designed to improve quality of care that was developed with guidance from expert trainers, providers, and families.
