“The treatment that we’re delivering , called exposure based CBT or cognitive behavioral treatment, that’s really the gold standard for youth with anxiety,” said Dr. Jennifer Freeman, the director of Bradley Hospital’s Pediatric Anxiety Research Center and the principal investigator of this study.

“So that treatment is not new. What we’re testing out is different delivery models for that treatment,” said Freeman.

She said there will be three delivery models:

Traditional in person therapyTelehealth-based therapyFlexible model that combines both in-person and telehealth visits.

“Our goal is to expand access,” said Freeman.

It also will determine which delivery model works best for whom.

“We definitely see a need in the community,” said Jess Crowe with Family Service Rhode of Island, one of five community partners helping to recruit.

“It really could be a youth who’s struggling in school and really being nervous to raise their hand in class,” said Crowe. “It really could be a youth who has a fear of something and feeling really scared.”

“The other innovation here is that we are using teams–team-based treatment so it combines a license-based provider with a non licensed based provider–someone we call an exposure coach so folks that have gotten a lot of training to be able to be in this service delivery role,” said Freeman.

It will be those trained providers who will be hands on, doubling the access to exposure therapy.

“A sort of straight forward examples is a dog. Being afraid of dogs. We’re going to start with maybe a picture of a dog, a cartoon dog and then maybe move up to a stuffed animal dog and then maybe move up to a tiny, tiny dog,” said Freeman, who says it’s a proven therapy. “This treatment really helps kids get their lives back.”

This research is backed by $11 million in funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and is open to children with anxiety and/or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) between the ages of 5 and 18 with anxiety.

The community partners include: Blackstone Valley Community Health Care in Central Falls, Family Service of Rhode Island in Providence, Newport Mental Health i n Middletown, Gateway Healthcare in Pawtucket and South County and Thrive Behavioral Health in Warwick.