Dr Lara Farrell is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor in the School of Applied Psychology, and Director of the Griffith Centre for Mental Health at Griffith University. Her program of research focusses on improving access to evidence-based treatments for young people with phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) via novel modalities of care. She has published over 140 papers, serves as Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, and is a regular panel member for NHMRC and MRFF. Dr Farrell leads the “OCD Busters” and “Child Phobia” treatment research programs and has secured major funding from ARC, NHMRC, Rotary Health, NIMH, Foundation for Children and MRFF.

Many children experience intense and lasting fears of specific situations and/or animals/objects, including dogs, the dark, or storms. These intense and persistent fears, known as specific phobias, affect about one in ten children and can cause serious distress for both the child and their family. Left untreated, these fears are known to increase the risk of developing serious mental health problems later in life, such as anxiety or depression.

Our team at Griffith University has shown that brief, evidence-based treatments using exposure therapy can be highly effective in helping children overcome phobias. However, many families cannot access this treatment help due to high cost, lengthy waitlists, and a shortage of trained therapists delivering this treatment.

This project aims to make effective treatment more accessible by empowering parents to deliver therapy at home through a new program called FAST-CBT (Families Accessing Skills Training in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy). Parents will learn, through online modules and live videoconference parent group sessions, how to support their children to face and overcome their fears in a gradual, supportive and long-lasting way.

The project will test whether our novel parent-training program works better than current usual care in improving children’s fears and wellbeing. If successful, the program could be easily scaled across Australia, providing a fast, low-cost, and practical early intervention for families nationwide. By equipping parents with effective, evidence-based strategies to help their children overcome fear, this project has the potential to prevent lifelong mental health problems and improve the wellbeing of thousands of young Australians.

Co-Investigators: Professor Caroline Donovan, Professor Melanie Zimmer-Gembeck, Professor Allison Waters, Professor Robert Ware, Dr Chloe Chessell, Dr Jason Racz, Imogene Calteaux  and Dr Simon Byrne.