Family Networks (FaNs) for Children With Developmental Disorders and Delays

Summary

Over 6% of children in Pakistan suffer from a developmental disorder (intellectual disability or Autistic spectrum disorder) and most receive no intervention.In an earlier proof of concept study, the investigators integrated social, technological and business innovations to develop and successfully pilot a sustainable service for such children in one rural population of 30,000. Affected families were identified through a mobile phone-based interactive voice response system, and organised into family networks. 'Champion' family volunteers were trained in evidence-based interventions. A Tablet-based android application was developed for training, monitoring and supervision of the champions, based on the World Health Organization's guidelines. The champions delivered the intervention to other families in the network. The project was sustainable and demonstrated significant improvements in the lives of children and their families in the first 6 months of its operation. The investigators are scaling-up this intervention to a population of 1 million. The investigators aim to evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the scaled-up programme using cluster randomized control trial nested within the scale-up study.

Conditions

• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Developmental Disabilities

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Family networks program

Intervention, Family networks Program (FaNs), is administered once weekly over 9-10 weeks in a group format over 3 hours per sessions. Family networks Program (FaNs) is based on WHO mhGAP module for developmental disorders and incorporates WHO parent skills training program for children with developmental disorders and delays. Parents Skills Training Program includes modules on communication, play, daily living skills, managing challenging behavior, coping with stress. Intervention is provided by the family volunteers (members of community, mostly women, who have a child affected in their families).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Grand Challenges Canada

  collaborator OTHER

• Autism Speaks

  collaborator OTHER

• World Health Organization

  collaborator OTHER

• Institute of Psychiatry, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University of Liverpool

  collaborator OTHER

• Human Development Research Foundation, Pakistan

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Atif Rahman, PhD · University of Liverpool

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

2 Years

Max Age

12 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-04-30

Primary Completion

2017-12-31

Completion

2018-04-30

Countries

• Pakistan

Study Locations