Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM) 2024-2027

Launched by LESLIE E. ROOS · Jun 6, 2024

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

The BEAM trial, which stands for Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health, is studying a new program designed to help parents of young children improve their mental health and parenting skills. Many children, especially those who were born during the COVID-19 pandemic, have been affected by their parents' mental health struggles. The BEAM program aims to support parents dealing with issues like depression, anxiety, and parenting stress, ultimately benefiting their children’s emotional and developmental well-being. This trial will involve 400 parents with children aged 2 to 5 years, who will use a mobile app for 12 weeks to learn about mental health and connect with support from peers and coaches.

To be eligible for the trial, participants must be living in Manitoba, be a parent or primary caregiver to a child in the specified age range, and experience moderate to severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, or parenting stress. Participants will have regular check-ins via Zoom or phone and will complete questionnaires to track their progress. Importantly, the trial is looking for ways to make this program available to more families in the future by assessing its effectiveness and how well it can be implemented in the community. If you're interested, please reach out to the research team for more information.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • 1. Moderate to severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, parenting stress, and/or anger (as measured by the PHQ-9, GAD-7, PSI, and PROMIS-Anger). Those who do not have moderate to severe symptoms will meet with a member of the program research team to determine eligibility. This eligibility decision will be based on clinical judgement, ensuring that those with need can participate.
• • 2. Being a parent or primary caregiver of any gender to an 24- to 71-month-old (i.e., 2-5 year old) child.
• • 3. Living in Manitoba.
• • 4. Able to participate in check ins (15 to 60 minutes) via Zoom, phone, direct messaging with a parent peer coach.
• • 5. 18 years or older.
• • 6. Able to understand/read/speak in English.
• • 7. Willing to complete four 45-min questionnaires.
• • 8. At eligibility screening, a question asks if participants have access to an electronic device for viewing videos and participating in Zoom meetings. Participants who do not have access will be asked to contact the research team. The team may be able to accommodate a limited number of participants by providing relevant devices for the duration of the study.
• • 9. Participants have IP addresses within Manitoba, Canada, as determined by IP address in REDCap at time of eligibility screener questionnaire completion. Participants will be required to securely upload a photo that includes both a valid piece of Manitoba government identification and the participant's face (i.e., a 'selfie').
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • 1. Living outside of Manitoba.
• • 2. Being a parent or primary caregiver to a child outside of the ages of 24- to 71-months (i.e., 2-5 years).
• • 3. Previously participated in an earlier BEAM trial.
• • 4. Parents who report self-harm that required medical attention within the past six months or a suicide attempt within the past year will be ineligible to participate in BEAM unless the participant is engaged in individual therapy that attends to this acute risk level with one of the following professionals for the duration of the BEAM program: psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, or psychotherapist. The research team will email all prospective participants who are pending eligibility to schedule a phone call. This call will determine whether it is feasible to connect the participant with an individual therapist to manage specific needs before engaging in the BEAM program, and discuss if the BEAM program is the right fit for the participant's present needs.
• • Co-parents will be permitted to participate in BEAM regardless of current mental health challenges. Therefore, co-parents are only subject to inclusion criterion (3) and criteria (5-9). Instead of meeting inclusion criteria (2), parenting partners must be a "co-parent (e.g., the child's mom, dad, step-parent) or other primary caregiver (e.g., the child's grandma, cousin, uncle, auntie)" to the corresponding participant's 24- to 71-month-old (i.e., 2-5 year old) child. Co-parents will not receive the same pre-trial screening as parent participants, and thus will not be subject to exclusion criteria.