The Equity and Effectiveness Scientific Council

By J. Ryan Fuller, Ph.D

The Child & Family Institute and its sister nonprofit, the Weissman Children’s Foundation (WCF), recently launched an Equity and Effectiveness Scientific Council (EESC) to explore the most effective treatments for children who need it the most. This can include kids who are minorities, live in rural areas, or lack the financial resources. While there are evidence-based therapies to treat anxiety, depression, and even trauma, the barriers to treatment can seem insurmountable. Many families simply are not aware of where to get treatment, how to connect to the right treatment or to therapists with the right training, or how to access treatment due to financial, time or transportation constraints.

As a clinical psychologist, I have long been interested in finding the answer to this question: “How can we reach as many clinicians as possible, where they are, and give them the tools, resources and support to provide the best care to those in need?” After considering different approaches, I decided the best path forward was to develop software to guide therapists to use the best in-session practices, collect data to improve practice and, by connecting with other users, build community and facilitate ongoing learning.

Then I met Dr. Adam Weissman, who had another idea for how to help as many children and families as possible. Like me, he was passionate about broadly sharing therapies grounded in scientific research. Adam had successfully created models to train therapists efficiently in this kind of care through CFI, which with a number of offices in various states provided many people with effective treatment. We recognized our shared vision, common goals and complementary, though somewhat different, approaches.

With the launch of EESC, a team of generous, brilliant treatment developers and mental health advocates have joined our team of sharp, talented and dedicated CFI staff and volunteers. Together, we are planning a number of programmatic research projects that can both provide immediate, free care to children suffering from anxiety and depression and help us learn how to improve our practice over time.For example, EESC researchers are soon to study the effectiveness of “behavioral activation,” an evidence-based treatment commonly used to treat depression, along with more general cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). We will also look at technologies for therapists to use for teletherapy and to store electronic health records.

In this way, the EESC is committed to providing and improving the best care possible for everyone, especially to ensure underserved kids have access to wonderful therapists using the best techniques possible, no matter the child’s circumstances. That’s our mission.