Hand in Hand: Feasibility of a Compassion-Focused App to Support Parents of Children With Mental Health Problems

Parents of children and adolescents with mental health problems may experience substantial caregiving burden and emotional distress, including persistent stress, self-criticism, shame, and parental burnout. Hand in Hand is a four-week, self-guided, compassion-focused app developed to support parents of children and adolescents referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Drawing on principles from Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and inspired by work by Kirby et al., the app was developed through a participatory co-design process involving parents and clinical and research experts. The project comprises two interrelated sub-studies. Sub-study 1 is an open feasibility study evaluating the feasibility and preliminary outcomes of Hand in Hand among parents of children and adolescents referred to CAMHS in the Central Denmark Region. Feasibility outcomes include recruitment, retention, adherence, engagement, acceptability, and data completeness. Preliminary changes in parental outcomes, including parental burnout, emotion regulation, family empowerment, self-compassion, self-criticism, shame, and emotional distress, as well as parent-reported child outcomes, will also be explored. Sub-study 2 is an embedded qualitative study exploring parents' experiences of using Hand in Hand and their perceptions of whether and how the intervention influences parental well-being and family interactions.