Cathy Creswell is Professor of Developmental Clinical Psychology at the University of Reading, an Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Joint Director of the University of Reading Anxiety and Depression in Young people (AnDY) research unit. She was awarded the British Psychological Society May Davidson award for outstanding contribution to Clinical Psychology within 10 years of qualifying and currently holds an NIHR Research Professorship (2014-2019). Cathy co-directs the Anxiety and Depression in Young people (AnDY) research unit, which incorporates a busy research clinic where children, young people and their parents receive brief, psychological therapies. Cathy has particular research and clinical interests in the development and treatment of anxiety disorders in children and young people, and her work focuses on improving access and outcomes for children with these common conditions. In addition to academic publications, she has co-written self-help books for parents, including 'Overcoming your child's fears and worries' (Little Brown), and a recent practice guide for clinicians, ‘Parent-Led CBT for Child Anxiety: Helping Parents Help Their Kids’ (Guilford Press).
PRE-CONGRESS WORKSHOP on 05.09.2018, 09:00-17:00:
Brief Parent-Led CBT for child anxiety disorders
Anxiety disorders are common in children, often run a chronic course and present a risk for other serious psychological difficulties. Half of all people who experience an anxiety disorder first experience difficulties by the age of 11 years and families frequently tell us that they wished they had had support at that time, when their child first needed it.
CBT has a robust evidence base for child anxiety disorders, with good outcomes for preadolescent children. Yet very few children who could benefit access it. CBT for childhood anxiety can be efficiently delivered via parents or carers as they are in a position to learn and teach their child CBT principles and apply them within their day to day lives, and may also lead them to modify parental behaviours which inadvertently reinforce child anxiety problems.
Learning objectives
This workshop will:
- give an overview of the empirical background to brief, parent-led CBT for (pre-adolescent) child anxiety disorders
- describe outcomes from systematic clinical and cost-effectiveness evaluations in ‘real world’ settings
- introduce and provide opportunities to practice the core components of the intervention
- enable discussion of challenges that may be faced by therapists and families in implementing this approach
Teaching Methods
Powerpoint presentation, video demonstration, role play, discussion
KEYNOTE on 06.09.2018, 12:00-13:00:
Increasing access to effective interventions for child anxiety disorders
Anxiety Disorders are the most common mental health problem across the lifespan, create a huge personal burden for individuals and substantial economic burden for society. They have a particularly early age of onset and often run a chronic course- with half of all people who experience an anxiety disorder first experiencing those difficulties by the age of 11 years. Yet we have recently found that less than 3% of children with an anxiety disorder receive CBT, despite this being the only psychological treatment that has an evidence base. Service restrictions are clearly a key barrier- but families face many other barriers at much earlier stages. This talk will illustrate the multiple barriers that families experience from the emergence of problems to the point at which children and families access support, in which families can fall through the holes and be left to struggle unsupported. It will also describe our recent research on identification and efficient treatment delivery which provide the means to overcome many of the barriers families face and to empower families by providing the support they need to help them to help their children.