Prevention Programme for Improvement of Well-being and Level of Participation in Adolescents With Enhanced Psychiatric Burden in the School Environment.
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: blinded-care counselling, App STEPS, digital and mental literacy training.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Blended-care Counselling, Digital and Mental Literacy Training, App STEPS. Basic parameters: 10 years — 14 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Germany
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Overview
The objectives of this two-arm phase-IIa randomized, controlled study are: * to prove whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support (blinded care approach) and a training of digital and mental health literacy is superior to a teacher-guided training of digital and mental health literacy only (treatment as usual) concerning the reduction of psychiatric burden in adolescents. * to improve the well-being and level of participation in adolescents at risk for psychiatric disorders. * to reduce the expression of psychiatric symptoms in adolescents with enhanced psychiatric burden. * to test whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support is well accepted by students, their parents, and teachers. * to identify individual factors predicting the improvement of well-being and level of participation in adolescents as well as the acceptance of the prevention program in all subjects involved (students, parents, teachers, psychologists). * to investigate whether the clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support causes reduction of primary and secondary costs in the psychosocial support system and represents an economic advantage.
Detailed description
The objectives of this two-arm phase-IIa randomized, controlled study are:
* to prove whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support (blinded care approach) and a training of digital and mental health literacy is superior to a teacher-guided training of digital and mental health literacy only (treatment as usual) concerning the reduction of psychiatric burden in adolescents. * to improve the well-being and level of participation in adolescents at risk for psychiatric disorders. * to reduce the expression of psychiatric symptoms in adolescents with enhanced psychiatric burden. * to test whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support is well accepted by students, their parents, and teachers. * to identify individual factors predicting the improvement of well-being and level of participation in adolescents as well as the acceptance of the prevention program in all subjects involved (students, parents, teachers, psychologists). * to investigate whether the clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support causes reduction of primary and secondary costs in the psychosocial support system and represents an economic advantage.
The STEPS@SCHOOL clinical study is a two-arm parallel group phase-IIa randomized, non-blinded, controlled study with four measurement points (T1: confirming the risk status/checking inclusion criteria/informed consent; T2: baseline assessment and randomization prior to start of intervention; T3: post intervention assessment; T4: three months follow-up). The study will prove whether the combination of a clinic-guided personal counseling with a therapy-assistive digital support (first arm) is superior to a teacher-guided digital preventive platform with stand-alone digital applications (second arm, described as treatment as usual) concerning the reduction of psychiatric burden in adolescents. To prove this objective, a comparison between two groups (treatment of approval vs. treatment as usual) is necessary.
The intervention is a implementation of a weekly psychological counseling for psychiatric problems via videoconference combined with an additionally digital support using a well-established mobile treatment system STEPS®. The intervention will include: 1) digital and mental literacy training for children, parents and teachers in the school; 2) weekly counselling over 6 weeks via videoconference for adolescents and their parents; 3) blinded-care use of the mobile treatment system STEPS®.
Control condition (Treatment as Usual) includes the implementation of the digital and mental literacy training, however, no weekly counselling by the team of the clinic and no blinded-care use of the mobile treatment system STEPS®.
Interventions
- Other blinded-care counselling
The intervention is a implementation of a weekly psychological counseling for psychiatric problems via videoconference combined with an additionally digital support using a well-established mobile treatment system STEPS®. The intervention will include: 2) weekly counselling over 6 weeks via videoconference for adolescents and their parents. The counselling will be provided by experienced psychologists as employers of the Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, RWTH Aachen University, the cou - Other App STEPS
The intervention is a implementation of a weekly psychological counseling for psychiatric problems via videoconference combined with an additionally digital support using a well-established mobile treatment system STEPS®. The intervention will include: 3) blinded-care use of the mobile treatment system STEPS®. This is transdiagnostic digital treatment system which consists of a students front-end as an App and a therapist front-end as an online platform. The App and the platform are connected t - Other digital and mental literacy training
The intervention is a implementation of a weekly psychological counseling for psychiatric problems via videoconference combined with an additionally digital support using a well-established mobile treatment system STEPS®. The intervention will include: 1) digital and mental literacy training for children, parents and teachers in the school. This training program (4 weeks, 8 session a 2 lesson units, 2 sessions a week) includes information about rules and functions by using mobile applications,
Primary outcome measures
- Student's well-being and level of participation [Time frame: T2 (baseline) vs. T3 (post intervention assessment within one week); T2 (baseline) vs. T4 (3 months follow-up)]
Secondary outcome measures (3)
- Reduction of psychiatric burden [Time frame: T2 (baseline) vs. T3 (post intervention assessment within one week); T2 (baseline) vs. T4 (3 months follow-up)]
- Reduction of children's global impairment [Time frame: T2 (baseline) vs. T3 (post intervention assessment within one week); T2 (baseline) vs. T4 (3 months follow-up)]
- Feasibility measures [Time frame: T2 (baseline) vs. T3 (post intervention assessment within one week); T2 (baseline) vs. T4 (3 months follow-up)]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Children and adolescents of both genders (w : m = 1 : 1) aged from 10 to 14 years
- Psychiatric symptoms characterized using SDQ-25 with the cutoff > 17
- Regular school attendence
Exclusion criteria
- IQ <80, ongoing psychiatric or psychotherapeutic treatment with regular appointments (at least once a month).
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
Study locations
Germany · 1 center
- Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, RWTH Aachen University — Aachen
Publications
- Dallinger VC, Krishnamoorthy G, du Plessis C, Pillai-Sasidharan A, Ayres A, Waters L, Groom Y, Alston O, Anderson L, Burton L. Utilisation of Digital Applications for Personal Recovery Amongst Youth with Mental Health Concerns. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 14;19(24):16818. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416818. PMID 36554700
- Damian AJ, Gallo JJ, Mendelson T. Barriers and facilitators for access to mental health services by traumatized youth. Child Youth Serv Rev. 2018 Jan;85:273-278. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.01.003. Epub 2018 Jan 7. PMID 29795708
- Grist R, Porter J, Stallard P. Mental Health Mobile Apps for Preadolescents and Adolescents: A Systematic Review. J Med Internet Res. 2017 May 25;19(5):e176. doi: 10.2196/jmir.7332. PMID 28546138
- Heflinger CA, Hinshaw SP. Stigma in child and adolescent mental health services research: understanding professional and institutional stigmatization of youth with mental health problems and their families. Adm Policy Ment Health. 2010 Mar;37(1-2):61-70. doi: 10.1007/s10488-010-0294-z. PMID 20232133
- Iskra W, Deane FP, Wahlin T, Davis EL. Parental perceptions of barriers to mental health services for young people. Early Interv Psychiatry. 2018 Apr;12(2):125-134. doi: 10.1111/eip.12281. Epub 2015 Oct 20. PMID 26487568
- Punukollu M, Marques M. Use of mobile apps and technologies in child and adolescent mental health: a systematic review. Evid Based Ment Health. 2019 Nov;22(4):161-166. doi: 10.1136/ebmental-2019-300093. Epub 2019 Jul 29. PMID 31358537
Identifiers
NCT: NCT06390384 · STEPS@SCHOOL