Professor Jennifer Freeman, Ph.D., has been awarded $11 million by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study in-person, remote, and flexible methods of delivering cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) to youth with anxiety disorders. Freeman and her research team, based at the Pediatric Anxiety Research Center (PARC) at Bradley Hospital, will work with young people seeking treatment at partner community health centers across the state. They hope their results will point the way to optimal service models that can be replicated nationally to increase equitable access to care.

“Over many years and many different studies, it has been our goal to take the work of PARC outside of primary hospital and academic settings,” said Freeman, PARC director. “This funding will allow for meaningful partnership with numerous community health settings to expand high quality anxiety treatment for youth who have been economically or socially marginalized or historically underrepresented in clinical science and underserved in clinical practice.”

All three delivery methods examined in the study (in-person, remote, and flexible) involve a team-based approach to care that builds on prior PARC research and clinical service models. In this approach, patients meet with licensed, Ph.D.-level clinicians on a monthly basis, but work primarily with non-licensed, specially trained providers. The team-based approach allows fewer licensed providers to serve more patients.

The PCORI-funded study aims to enroll more than 500 young people, ages 5 to 18, over the next five years. The award is pending final review and contract issuance.