Watch Me Play!: protocol for a feasibility study of a remotely delivered intervention to promote mental health resilience for children (ages 0–8) across UK early years and children’s services

Randell, Elizabeth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1606-3175, Nollett, Claire, Henley, Josie, Smallman, Kim ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9283-8120, Johnson, Sean, Meister, Lena, McNamara, Rachel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7280-1611, Wilkins, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2780-0385, Segrott, Jeremy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6215-0870, Casbard, Angela ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6241-3052, Wakelyn, Jenifer, McKay, Kathy, Bordea, Ekaterina, Totsika, Vaso and Kennedy, Eilis 2024. Watch Me Play!: protocol for a feasibility study of a remotely delivered intervention to promote mental health resilience for children (ages 0–8) across UK early years and children’s services. Pilot and Feasibility Studies 10 (1) , 55. 10.1186/s40814-024-01491-7

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Abstract

Background: Half of mental health problems are established by the age of 14 years and 75% by 24 years. Early intervention and prevention of mental ill health are therefore vitally important. However, increased demand over recent years has meant that access to child mental health services is often restricted to those in severest need. Watch Me Play! (WMP) is an early intervention designed to support caregiver attunement and attention to the child to promote social-emotional well-being and thereby mental health resilience. Originally developed in the context of a local authority mental health service for children in care, it is now also delivered online as a low intensity, scalable, preventative intervention. Although WMP shows promise and is already used in some services, we do not yet know whether it is effective. Methods: A non-randomised single group feasibility study with embedded process evaluation. We propose to recruit up to 40 parents/carers of children aged 0–8 years who have been referred to early years and children’s services in the UK. WMP involves a parent watching the child play and talking to their child about their play (or for babies, observing and following signals) for up to 20 min per session. Some sessions are facilitated by a trained practitioner who provides prompts where necessary, gives feedback, and discusses the child’s play with the caregiver. Services will offer five facilitated sessions, and parents will be asked to do at least 10 additional sessions on their own with their child in a 5-week period. Feasibility outcomes examined are as follows: (i) recruitment, (ii) retention, (iii) adherence, (iv) fidelity of delivery, (v) barriers and facilitators of participation, (vi) intervention acceptability, (vii) description of usual care, and (viii) data collection procedures. Intervention mechanisms will be examined through qualitative interview data. Economic evaluation will be conducted estimating cost of the intervention and cost of service use for child and parents/carers quality-adjusted life years. Discussion: This study will address feasibility questions associated with progression to a future randomised trial of WMP. Trial registration: ISRCTN13644899. Registered on 14th April 2023.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education) Medicine Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer) Centre for Trials Research (CNTRR)
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Type: open-access
Publisher:	BioMed Central
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 April 2024
Date of Acceptance:	26 March 2024
Last Modified:	08 Apr 2024 09:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/167784

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