A Prospective Randomised Controlled Study of a Directed Psycho-educational Tool to Prevent Psychological Sequelae Following Paediatric Intensive Care Admission.

• To systematically evaluate an innovative directed psycho-educational intervention consisting of written specific, age-appropriate information, complemented by a follow-up targeted telephone call in order to reduce psychological sequelae in the child and their parents/guardians after PICU discharge.
• To confirm the effects of the psycho-educational tool on parent and child emotional adjustment 6 months after PICU discharge; and to explore whether these outcomes are associated with the child's age; with receipt of the targeted telephone call; and/or with parental levels of stress during the child's admission.
• To obtain detailed feedback from parents/guardians and children about the different aspects of the psycho-educational intervention (the written information and the targeted telephone call) and the utility of these two psycho-educational interventions.

The study team will perform a randomised controlled trial of the intervention vs treatment as usual in children 0-16 years, stratified according to age (< 4 years and > 4 years).

It is estimated that 288 children will be required to show a difference in outcome which is PTSD in parents and children.