OCD Busters — Developing a new therapist-assisted online training platform to service parents of children with obsessive-compulsive disorder

As an initiative of Griffith University, the OCD Busters program was designed to treat children affected by obsessive-compulsive disorder through cognitive behavioural therapy, incorporating exposure and response prevention (CBT-ERP). However, access to these services is often hampered by long waitlist times and a lack of trained clinicians with expertise in CBT-ERP. 

We were approached by the team to create a custom learning management system to validate the OCD Busters program and improve access to high-quality treatment for all children with OCD via an online platform, to empower parents to create real change for their children through therapist assisted exposure therapy.

Taking a pilot approach, the goal for the platform’s first iteration was to measure the success of the program for a trial group of children and parents, with the vision to secure further funding for expansion upon successful completion. To ensure that we were focusing our efforts on the areas that would have the most impact on the target audience, detailed user need profiling and task mapping was completed for parents, children and therapists to ultimately inform the development of key features and overall design of the platform. 

The solution we created was a user-centric training tool tailored to address the multifaceted challenges faced by families and children with OCD. Its core features were carefully designed to cater to unique requirements, while also setting the foundation to build upon this functionality in future as the program grew. 

The platform consisted of four key features including an initial assessment of obsessions and compulsions to build a custom plan for the parent and child, four primary content modules featuring interactive quizzes and a rewards system, customised ‘Facing and Fighting Plans’ to enable parents to deliver exposure therapy, and a dashboard for parents to easily access modules and other key functions such as a calendar for parents to plan therapist appointments and at-home practice with their child. 

Reporting was another major focus to measure the effectiveness of the program online. This was achieved through the development of a feedback mechanism to gain crucial feedback from users throughout their journey. Users were presented with prompts at key milestones to measure the child’s symptoms against the progression of the training.

Since the launch of the MVP, we have worked closely with the clinical team at Griffith University to optimise the platform further and continue to deliver on crucial user needs in the provision of effective and accessible OCD treatment for children and parents.