Harnessing Technology to Extend the Reach of Supported Care for Families Affected by Early Child Social Anxiety

The goal of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of an Internet-delivered format of an evidence-based CBT treatment for early child social anxiety disorder (Coaching Approach behavior and Leading by Modeling, or the CALM Program) in which therapists and families meet in real-time via videoconferencing and parent-child interactions are broadcast from the family's home via a webcam while therapists provide bug-in-the-ear coaching from a remote site. In a randomized controlled trial (RCT), the proposed work will evaluate 40 youth with social anxiety disorder (ages 3-8); 20 will receive the CALM Program over the Internet (I-CALM) and 20 will be assigned to a waitlist control, followed by I-CALM treatment.

SPECIFIC AIMS:

• Aim 1: To evaluate I-CALM efficacy for reducing early child social anxiety symptoms and related impairments and for improving child and parent quality of life.
• Aim 2: To examine the extent to which I-CALM helps families overcome traditional barriers to effective care, including geographic barriers and regional professional workforce shortages in social anxiety expert care.
• Aim 3: To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and satisfaction of I-CALM from the perspective of treated\ families, and lay the foundation for a large Florida statewide implementation of I-CALM for early social anxiety.

RATIONALE: Despite progress in supported programs for child social anxiety disorder, gaps persist between treatment in specialty clinics and services broadly available in the community. Although considerable advances show social anxiety is treatable when appropriate CBT is available, barriers interfere with the broad provision of quality care. Few sufferers receive services, and those who do receive services do not necessarily receive evidence-based care. Many U.S. counties have no psychologist, psychiatrist, or social worker, let alone professionals trained in supported social anxiety treatments. When effective programs are available, transportation issues constrain access, with large proportions of patients reporting that services are too far away or they have no way to get to a clinic. Expert providers cluster around metropolitan regions and major academic hubs, leaving considerable numbers of youth without access to supported service options. Youth from low-income or remote and rural communities are particularly unlikely to receive appropriate care. High rates of stigma-related beliefs further constrain service utilization, with many reporting negative attitudes about visiting a mental health clinic.

An Internet-delivered, real-time intervention for the remote treatment of early child social anxiety disorder has the potential to meaningfully extend the reach of effective social anxiety treatment for underserved youth and can serve as the critical foundation upon which to build a larger-scale statewide implementation of early social anxiety treatment. Moreover, treating youth in their homes can overcome stigma-related concerns that interfere with families attending services at a psychiatric clinic, and treatment gains may be more generalizable and ecologically valid as services are provided to youth in their natural settings.