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Evaluating a Web-Based Mental Health Service for Secondary School Students in Australia: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
BACKGROUND: Mental health problems are prevalent among Australian secondary school youth; however, help-seeking is low. Schools offer an ideal setting to address these concerns. The Black Dog Institute has developed a Web-based mental health service for secondary schools that is modeled on the princ...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
JMIR Publications
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6543801/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31102370 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/12892 |
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author | O'Dea, Bridianne King, Catherine Subotic-Kerry, Mirjana Anderson, Melissa Achilles, Melinda Rose Parker, Belinda Mackinnon, Andrew Anderson, Josey Cockayne, Nicole Christensen, Helen |
author_facet | O'Dea, Bridianne King, Catherine Subotic-Kerry, Mirjana Anderson, Melissa Achilles, Melinda Rose Parker, Belinda Mackinnon, Andrew Anderson, Josey Cockayne, Nicole Christensen, Helen |
author_sort | O'Dea, Bridianne |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Mental health problems are prevalent among Australian secondary school youth; however, help-seeking is low. Schools offer an ideal setting to address these concerns. The Black Dog Institute has developed a Web-based mental health service for secondary schools that is modeled on the principles of stepped care. The Smooth Sailing service aims to improve help-seeking and reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms in secondary school students. The acceptability of this service has been demonstrated in a pilot study. A full trial is now warranted. OBJECTIVE: This study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Smooth Sailing Web-based service for improving help-seeking intentions and behavior, and reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms, alongside other mental health outcomes, when compared with a school-as-usual control condition in secondary school youth. METHODS: This RCT aims to recruit 1600 students from 16 secondary schools in regional and urban locations throughout New South Wales, Australia. Schools are randomly assigned to the intervention or school-as-usual control condition at the school level. Approximately 100 students from 1 or multiple grades are recruited from each participating school. Participants complete measures at 3 timepoints: baseline, 6 weeks post, and 12 weeks post, with the primary outcome assessed at 12 weeks posttest. Participants assigned to the intervention condition register to the Web-based service at baseline and receive care in accordance with the service model. Participants in the control condition receive school-as-usual. RESULTS: The first baseline assessment occurred on February 22, 2018, with the 12-week endpoint assessments completed on Friday, June 29, 2018. Control schools are currently receiving the service, due for completion by June 30, 2019. The trial results are expected to demonstrate improved help-seeking intentions and behavior among students assigned to the intervention condition, alongside improvements in symptoms of depression, anxiety, distress, and other mental health outcomes when compared with students assigned to the control condition. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first time that a Web-based mental health service based on the principles of stepped care will have been integrated into, and evaluated in, the Australian school context. The findings of this trial will have implications for the suitability of this type of service model in Australian schools and for the delivery of school-based mental health services more broadly. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12618001539224 https://anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=375821&isReview=true (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/77N3MDGS6) INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/12892 |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6543801 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | JMIR Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-65438012019-06-19 Evaluating a Web-Based Mental Health Service for Secondary School Students in Australia: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial O'Dea, Bridianne King, Catherine Subotic-Kerry, Mirjana Anderson, Melissa Achilles, Melinda Rose Parker, Belinda Mackinnon, Andrew Anderson, Josey Cockayne, Nicole Christensen, Helen JMIR Res Protoc Protocol BACKGROUND: Mental health problems are prevalent among Australian secondary school youth; however, help-seeking is low. Schools offer an ideal setting to address these concerns. The Black Dog Institute has developed a Web-based mental health service for secondary schools that is modeled on the principles of stepped care. The Smooth Sailing service aims to improve help-seeking and reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms in secondary school students. The acceptability of this service has been demonstrated in a pilot study. A full trial is now warranted. OBJECTIVE: This study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Smooth Sailing Web-based service for improving help-seeking intentions and behavior, and reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms, alongside other mental health outcomes, when compared with a school-as-usual control condition in secondary school youth. METHODS: This RCT aims to recruit 1600 students from 16 secondary schools in regional and urban locations throughout New South Wales, Australia. Schools are randomly assigned to the intervention or school-as-usual control condition at the school level. Approximately 100 students from 1 or multiple grades are recruited from each participating school. Participants complete measures at 3 timepoints: baseline, 6 weeks post, and 12 weeks post, with the primary outcome assessed at 12 weeks posttest. Participants assigned to the intervention condition register to the Web-based service at baseline and receive care in accordance with the service model. Participants in the control condition receive school-as-usual. RESULTS: The first baseline assessment occurred on February 22, 2018, with the 12-week endpoint assessments completed on Friday, June 29, 2018. Control schools are currently receiving the service, due for completion by June 30, 2019. The trial results are expected to demonstrate improved help-seeking intentions and behavior among students assigned to the intervention condition, alongside improvements in symptoms of depression, anxiety, distress, and other mental health outcomes when compared with students assigned to the control condition. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first time that a Web-based mental health service based on the principles of stepped care will have been integrated into, and evaluated in, the Australian school context. The findings of this trial will have implications for the suitability of this type of service model in Australian schools and for the delivery of school-based mental health services more broadly. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12618001539224 https://anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=375821&isReview=true (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/77N3MDGS6) INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/12892 JMIR Publications 2019-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6543801/ /pubmed/31102370 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/12892 Text en ©Bridianne O'Dea, Catherine King, Mirjana Subotic-Kerry, Melissa Anderson, Melinda Rose Achilles, Belinda Parker, Andrew Mackinnon, Josey Anderson, Nicole Cockayne, Helen Christensen. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 17.05.2019. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Research Protocols, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.researchprotocols.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. |
spellingShingle | Protocol O'Dea, Bridianne King, Catherine Subotic-Kerry, Mirjana Anderson, Melissa Achilles, Melinda Rose Parker, Belinda Mackinnon, Andrew Anderson, Josey Cockayne, Nicole Christensen, Helen Evaluating a Web-Based Mental Health Service for Secondary School Students in Australia: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial |
title | Evaluating a Web-Based Mental Health Service for Secondary School Students in Australia: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial |
title_full | Evaluating a Web-Based Mental Health Service for Secondary School Students in Australia: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial |
title_fullStr | Evaluating a Web-Based Mental Health Service for Secondary School Students in Australia: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial |
title_full_unstemmed | Evaluating a Web-Based Mental Health Service for Secondary School Students in Australia: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial |
title_short | Evaluating a Web-Based Mental Health Service for Secondary School Students in Australia: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial |
title_sort | evaluating a web-based mental health service for secondary school students in australia: protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial |
topic | Protocol |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6543801/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31102370 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/12892 |
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