OSI: Making Therapy for Child Anxiety Work for Busy Families | Prof Cathy Creswell, Digital Youth

Prof. Cathy Creswell from the University of Oxford introduces OSI (Online Support and Intervention), a digitally augmented CBT programme for children with anxiety, delivered through online parent modules and brief remote therapist calls.

She explains why digital doesn't mean distant, how families form meaningful therapeutic relationships in just 20 minutes a week, and how ongoing co-design with families and clinicians keeps the programme improving after launch.

She also explains how OSI is now expanding to serve autistic children (via a large NIHR-funded study), children with OCD, and children with behavioural problems. And she reflects on what it took to move from research to real-world scale, including the decision to partner with commercial company COA Health.

???? Digital Youth programme: https://digitalyouth.ac.uk/dyxmt-conference/

⏱ Chapters:
0:00 What is OSI? Digitally augmented therapy for child anxiety
0:23 How the therapy works: parent modules and remote coaching
0:53 Parent feedback and satisfaction data
1:33 Building a real therapeutic connection remotely
2:03 Co-design with families: through research and beyond
2:42 Rolling out and improving continuously with a partner
3:27 Expanding to new needs: autism, OCD and behavioural problems
4:42 Commercial partnership with COA Health and the road ahead

This video was recorded at the Digital Youth x MindTech Conference in London on 13th November 2025 by André Tomlin from The Mental Elf.

Find out more about the Digital Youth project at: https://digitalyouth.ac.uk