Adaptation and Pilot Testing of Web and Mobile Interface for the VID-KIDS Intervention

Summary

COVID-19 has placed unprecedented strains on parents impacted by toxic stress (depression, addiction, intimate partner violence, and poverty) and reluctant to see mental health-service providers in home/clinic due to fears of infection. Due to the pandemic, Co-PI Letourneau ceased/delayed recruitment in VID-KIDS a CIHR-funded randomized controlled trials (RCT) of in-person (home or clinic) program designed to improve children's mental, emotional and behavioural (MEB) health and development via parent-child relationship intervention. Recognizing the heightened need for already vulnerable families to obtain safe parenting support to manage depressive symptoms/other stressors. Our primary knowledge user (D. McNeil, Scientific Director, Maternal Newborn Child and Youth Strategic Clinical Network, Alberta Health Services) advocated for online delivery of the VID-KIDS parent training program. In response, an interdisciplinary team from nursing and software engineering rapidly pivoted to an online delivery format. Critical barriers to using existing commercial technologies emerged, making it essential to develop and implement tailored, user-informed virtual care delivery platforms and tools safe, secure, user-friendly for families already stressed. This project aligns with the priority research area, Developing Innovative Adaptations of Services and/or Delivery, as innovative user interface design and integrated knowledge transfer approaches will be used to: (a) adapt VID-KIDS for virtual delivery; (b) develop virtual platforms (web-based applications) and tools (mobile apps) for flexible delivery of mental health supports for parents and training for professional facilitators; (c) integrate virtual mental health services into the primary care system promoting program uptake; and (d) design/test streamlined and intuitive virtual systems for nimble spread/scaleup. The project catalyzes and enriches the PIs' research program by crossing disciplines (nursing \& engineering) in cutting edge research that is responsive to trends in both mental health intervention and web-interface design. This will be foundational for future tri-council RCT grants, expanding our research into user-engaged technology-enabled delivery of needed community interventions, especially relevant to promoting the urgent mental health needs of Canadian families in the COVID-19 context of physical distancing.

Conditions

• Post Partum Depression

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

VID-KIDS Intervention Program

Investigators created VID-KIDS for mothers with PPD to improve sensitivity and positive responsiveness towards their infants. Video-feedback has the advantage of being visually concrete yet "distant" because the action and the feedback are not concurrent; this helps mothers maintain an element of objectivity that may minimize guilty feelings associated with potential perceived lack of parenting skills. Videofeedback interventionists are trained by investigators with manualized modules. Including: Introduction to Video-feedback; NCAST Keys to Caregiving Program; Infant Engagement and Disengagement Cues; Video-feedback Intervention Protocol; Overview of Behaviours of Interest; Case Studies; and Examples of Strengths-Based Feedback. VID-KIDS intervention follows an 8-step protocol.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Alberta Health services

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Calgary

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Nicole Letourneau · University of Calgary

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Max Age

49 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-03-15

Primary Completion

2022-12-31

Completion

2022-12-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations