Online Support and Intervention (OSI) is an example of how mental health support for children and families can be advanced through parent and carer involvement in research. 

OSI is a NICE EVA (Early Value Assessment) recommended online platform through which parents are supported to help their children to overcome problems with anxiety. Instead of weekly therapy sessions for the child, OSI gives parents simple online modules to work through at home, with brief, remote, individual support from a therapist. The idea is to give parents the tools and confidence to support their children in their day to day lives.

OSI was initially co-developed with parents and children who had personal experience of anxiety problems. In a recent large trial, the research team tested out how OSI with therapist support compared to usual treatment for child anxiety problems in routine child mental health services. The study showed that both OSI and routine treatment were associated with substantial reductions in child anxiety, but importantly the OSI approach involved much less therapy time and children still did just as well from the treatment. Parents and therapists said it felt manageable, reassuring and practical.

OSI is now being rolled out more widely through routine services – offering a flexible, effective option for many families. The team are also now building on this work to broaden the OSI approach to support children with OCD, anxiety problems in the context of autism, and selective mutism, and are working with international colleagues to make OSI available in other parts of the world (including Iceland, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, and Chile).

Parents and carers have been involved at every step of the way including the initial ideas to develop OSI, designing the programme, and consulting on the studies to evaluate it to make sure they are done in ways that work for families. As we widen the ‘OSI family’ to cover a broader range of conditions, parents and carers are continuing to help us make sure these adaptations meet the needs of the families who could benefit from them.

Find out more:

• about the study mentioned above
• about the journey from developing OSI with children, parents and clinicians to rolling it out in practice
• about the initial co-design of OSI
• about a recent co-adaptation for autistic children.