Improving Behavioral Health for Caregivers and Children After Pediatric Injury
Pediatric traumatic injury (PTI) is a public health priority, with more than 125,000 children experiencing injuries that require hospitalization each year. These children, and their caregivers, are affected in many ways that may affect quality of life, emotional and behavioral health, physical recovery, family roles and routines, and academic functioning; yet US trauma centers do not adequately address these outcomes and a scalable national model of care for these families is needed. This proposal builds on prior…
Conditions studied
Quality of Life, PTSD, Depression Not Otherwise Specified, Child Externalizing Behavior
About this study
Pediatric traumatic injury (PTI) is a public health priority, with more than 125,000 children experiencing injuries that require hospitalization each year. These children, and their caregivers, are affected in many ways that may affect quality of life, emotional and behavioral health, physical recovery, family roles and routines, and academic functioning; yet US trauma centers do not adequately address these outcomes and a scalable national model of care for these families is needed. This proposal builds on prior research from the investigative team to test a technology-assisted, stepped care behavioral health intervention for children (\<12 years) and their caregivers after PTI, CAARE (Caregivers' Aid to Accelerate Recovery after pediatric Emergencies), via a hybrid type I effectiveness-implementation trial with 348 families randomly assigned to CAARE (n=174) vs. guideline-adherent enhanced usual care (EUC) (n=174).
Interventions
- Behavioral: Caregivers' Aid to Accelerate Recovery after pediatric Emergencies (CAARE) — CAARE is a technology-enhanced stepped model of care that is designed to deliver education at the bedside to caregivers of children under age 12 years hospitalized for pediatric injury about mental health recovery after pediatric injury as well as risk assessment and brief intervention for high-risk patients (Step 1), foster symptom self-monitoring and reinforcement of coping skills via mHealth tools (Step 2), screen for caregivers' and children's PTSD and depression 30 days post-injury (Step 3), and provide a referral and warm hand-off to mental health services if needed (Step 4).
Primary outcomes
- Change in scores in child self-report and caregiver proxy-report of child Quality of Life (QOL) (From enrollment (baseline) to 3-month, to 6-month, until end of treatment at 12-month)
- Change in scores in caregiver self-report of PTSD (From 3-month, to 6-month, until end of treatment at 12-month)
- Change in scores in caregiver self-report of caregiver depression (From 3-month, to 6-month, until end of treatment at 12-month)
- Change of child externalizing problems from 3 month to 12 month (From 3-month, to 6-month, until end of treatment at 12-month)
- Change in scores in child self-report and caregiver proxy-report of child PTSD (From 3-month, to 6-month, until end of treatment at 12-month)
- Change in scores in child self-report (ages 6-11) of child depression (From 3-month, to 6-month, until end of treatment at 12-month)
Eligibility information
Study locations
- Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90027 United States
- Kentucky Children's Hospital, Lexington, Kentucky 40536 United States
- C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 United States
- Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, Texas 77030 United States
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov. Record last refreshed by Varda Clinical: 2026-09-30.