11th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS and 16th NATIONAL of CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Vanessa E. Cobham is an Associate Professor in Psychology at The University of Queensland, Australia; as well as a Senior Clinical Psychologist in Children’s Health Queensland’s Child and Youth Mental Health Service. She is regarded as an international expert in her research areas of child and adolescent anxiety disorders and posttraumatic mental health conditions. Her research has focused on improving our understanding of the ways in which anxiety and posttraumatic mental health conditions develop; and on the development and evaluation of models of care and interventions for the treatment of these conditions. Assoc. Prof. Cobham’s research is characterized by a family-centric approach to the treatment of youth experiencing mental illness; as well as an emphasis on increasing families’ access to interventions and clinicians’ use of evidence-based treatments. She has undertaken leadership roles for both the Australian and Queensland governments in meeting the post-disaster mental health needs of children and adolescents. Finally, Assoc. Prof. Cobham has published extensively and is also the lead author of evidence-based clinical resources and programs.

KEYNOTE ABSTRACT

Working with parents to treat anxiety-disordered children
Anxiety is among the most common psychological problems experienced by children and adolescents. And yet, fewer than 20% of anxiety-disordered youth receive any type of intervention; with this issue of access being arguably the most pressing challenge faced by researchers and clinicians in this field. Partnering with parents is one way to potentially increase families’ access to evidence-based interventions. In this address, an empirical rationale for the importance of parents in the treatment of child anxiety will be provided. A new parenting program – Fear-Less Triple P – will be described, and evidence relating to a parent-oriented approach to the treatment of child anxiety will be presented.