FAQs

The current trial is suitable for Australian mothers aged 18+ with a child under 3 years of age who experience anxiety and are drinking alcohol above recommended Australian health guidelines (i.e., more than 10 standard drinks per week or more than 4 standard drinks per day).

If you decide to take part, you will be asked to complete several steps:

1. Step 1 – Suitability assessment: Complete a brief 10-minute survey which contains questions that will be used to determine whether this study is suitable for you. Following this, one of our study psychologists will contact you to arrange a 15-minute phone call. This call gives us a chance to get to know you, understand what you need right now, and make sure that a digital program is the right type of support for your needs right now.
2. Step 2 – Baseline assessment: If the study is deemed suitable, you will be asked to complete a more detailed online survey (approx. 30-40 minutes) in which you will be asked about your mental health, parenting, and substance use, as well as some questions on your child’s development and your relationship with them.
3. Step 3 – Group allocation and program completion (6-weeks): Once the initial survey is completed, you will be randomly allocated to one of two conditions. You will have a 50% chance of being allocated into:
   • The Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program group: This group will receive immediate access to a program that involves 6 digital modules (comprised of a 45-minute audio and a 15-30-minute Learn & Apply worksheet) which focus on developing skills to help you manage your anxiety and alcohol use. A new online module will be accessible each week. In addition, you will be offered a telehealth phone call from a registered psychologist at week 1 and 4 of the program, and receive weekly feedback regarding your progress.
   • The waitlist control group: This group will be placed on a waitlist to receive access to the Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program (the digital program plus psychologist support) after the study period (4 months later). In the meantime, a list of existing support services for postnatal, mental health, alcohol use, or parenting concerns will be provided, and participants are able to access these (or other support services) without restriction.
4. Step 4: Follow-up assessments: Regardless of which condition you are randomly allocated to, you will be asked to complete an online follow-up survey 2 months and 4 months after the initial survey. These follow-up surveys will take approximately 30-40 minutes to complete and will allow us to assess your progress over time, including any changes in your mental health and alcohol use. You will receive a gift voucher for each survey you complete as a thank you for your time. For those in the waitlist control group who later access the Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program, we will ask you to complete an additional, brief 15-20-minute ‘post-program’ survey (2-month after gaining access) to evaluate your experience with the program. You will receive a gift voucher for completing this brief survey.

All the information and personal details gathered during the study are completely confidential. Only members of the team will have access to the data, and you will not be individually identified in any publication of the results.

Each of the surveys for this study will take approximately 30-40 minutes to complete. If you are allocated into the Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub group, the program consists of six 45-minute audio sessions plus a 15-30 minute Learn and Apply worksheet to reinforce the skills you learn each week and reflect on your progress. The modules are designed to be completed one week apart over a 6-week period. You can spend as little or as much time as you like practicing the skills in your everyday life; however, we find the more time you spend, the more likely you are to see positive effects on your anxiety and drinking.

The more effort you put into the program, the more you will likely get out of it. However, it is important to have realistic expectations about what you will achieve. It takes patience and effort to control your habits and form new behaviours. You might not see big changes right away – it could be a few weeks, or even a few months, but that is normal. The key is to keep practicing the skills you learn, even after the program wraps up.

The Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program being evaluated in this research trial was developed by researchers and psychologists at a number of national and international universities, including the University of Sydney (Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use), University of New South Wales, University of Newcastle, University of Queensland, New York University (USA), and Liverpool John Moores University (UK), alongside mothers with lived experience of anxiety and/or risky drinking. Together, the team has over 15 years of experience researching the most effective treatments for anxiety and alcohol use and the best ways of overcoming these issues.

In 2024, the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) awarded the team a Childhood Mental Health Research Grant which provided funding to determine how effective the Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program is in helping mothers and their young children who are living in Australia. The study received ethics approval from the University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC 2026/HE000270).

The best way to find out if you might benefit from the Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program is to register and complete our eligibility screening survey. The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes and will ask a number of questions about your drinking, anxiety, and other mental health symptoms to determine if the program is right for you.

Please note: The Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program and associated trial is not suitable for everyone. The good news is that there are other effective support options available for anxiety, alcohol use problems and low mood among mothers, and we have curated a list of alternate services for assistance and support.

You can also contact us and ask to speak to one of our team members. They can also answer any questions you have about the project.

Because this is a research study, everyone is randomly allocated to one of the two groups. This means there’s no way to choose your group, but it also means every mum has an equal chance of being placed in the Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program (it’s a 50:50 chance, like the flip of a coin). The other group will be placed on a waitlist to receive the program 4 months after they are randomised (after completion of the study period) and therefore will still be able to access the program at a later date.

Random allocation is important because it helps researchers get a clear and fair understanding of how well the program works. It reduces the chances that the people in one group are different in important ways from those in the other group. This means that any differences in results are more likely to be due to the program itself.

The Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program uses two evidence-based therapies called Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). These types of therapy have been shown in many research studies to be effective at reducing symptoms of anxiety and in helping people to better control their alcohol use. These therapies are recommended in Australian clinical practice guidelines for anxiety and alcohol management, as well as clinical guidelines for managing co-occurring conditions.

There are several reviews available, outlining the effectiveness of these therapies for anxiety, alcohol use, and their co-occurrence:

• Review of CBT for managing anxiety.
• Review of CBT for managing alcohol use.
• Review of Motivational Interviewing for managing alcohol use.
• Review of CBT and other treatments for managing co-occurring anxiety and substance use disorders.

Motivational Interviewing is very focused and goal-directed which facilitates and engages intrinsic motivation to change behaviour, while Cognitive Behaviour Therapy encourages you to examine the various situations you are involved in every day, and looks at your reactions to those situations (for example, your thoughts, worries, assumptions etc) which may affect how you feel about that situation and how you behave. Motivational Interviewing aims to help you explore your short- and long-term goals and the things that may be stopping you from getting to where you want to go and assists you on how to get there. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy aims to help you think, feel and behave differently in situations causing you worry and stress using a range of different skills and strategies, so that things can improve for you.

The Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program combines both therapies and builds on our team’s evidence-based interventions tested in several Australian research studies, which have demonstrated benefits in reducing co-occurring conditions including anxiety, alcohol use and low mood, and improving quality of life (e.g., the Inroads Program, the Postnatal Anxiety and Depression Program, and the Combined Alcohol Social Phobia Program).

The clinical content and therapeutic techniques used in the Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program are based on several effective programs for treating co-occurring conditions, including anxiety and alcohol use (the Inroads Program and the Combined Alcohol Social Phobia Program), as well as co-occurring anxiety and depression in the postnatal period specifically (the Postnatal Anxiety and Depression Program).

The effective Combined Alcohol and Social Phobia (“CASP”) program is a treatment program for adults who experience both social anxiety and alcohol use problems (Baillie et al. 2013). The CASP program was the first treatment to target both disorders simultaneously in an integrated way, which is in line with current guidelines. The program was evaluated in a clinical trial and results indicated that the CASP program produced significantly greater improvements in anxiety, depression and quality of life, compared to standard alcohol treatment (Stapinski et al., 2021).

The Inroads program (Stapinski et al. 2019) is an evidence-based youth adaptation of the CASP program. It is for young people who need some assistance managing anxiety symptoms and setting limits around drinking, and was designed to be delivered online. In a previous clinical trial, participants who received the Inroads program in combination with psychologist support experienced greater reductions in risky drinking, general anxiety, and social anxiety compared to a alcohol psychoeducation control group (Stapinski, Prior et al., 2021).

The Postnatal Anxiety and Depression program is an evidence based, online psychological treatment developed by THIS WAY UP digital mental health service. The program is designed for parents in the postnatal period who are experiencing clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and depression. The program helps participants understand and modify unhelpful thoughts, emotions, and behaviours that maintain anxiety and low mood following childbirth. The program has been evaluated in several clinical and real-world trials in Australia, demonstrating significant improvements in mental health outcomes compared with treatment as usual (Loughnan et al. 2019, Mahoney et al., 2023).

The online surveys and the Healthy Mum Healthy Bub program has been optimised to be completed on your phone (iPhone or Android), tablet and other mobile devices. The program is currently supported by Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. If you have any technical issues accessing the program, please contact us.

You are welcome to switch between devices over the course of the study (for example, if you start the study on your computer but go on holidays during one of the study weeks, you can do the study from your phone).

Yes. Anyone with access to the Internet and an email address is welcome to participate. If you can access your email and use an Internet browser, you have the skills needed to complete the study. No special skills are required. Throughout the study, we will send you emails and SMS messages to update you on your progress and to remind you of upcoming tasks.

Being in this study is completely voluntary and you do not have to take part. You are free to withdraw from the research and to discontinue participation in the program at any time without having to give a reason and without prejudicing your relationship with the researchers or the University of Sydney. If you decide to participate in the study and later decide you would like to withdraw, you may fill out the Withdrawal of Participation form on the study website. Your decision whether to let them participate will not affect your relationship with the researchers or anyone else at the University of Sydney, now or in the future.

After you withdraw, the researchers will not collect any additional personal information from you. Any information that we have already collected will be kept in our study records and will be included in the study results. If you prefer that your data is NOT included in the study results, you must inform the research team at the time you withdraw.

If you would simply like us to stop contacting you, please contact us and we can stop your notifications.

The study stores all of your personal information securely, meeting best practice standards for data encryption and storage. Identifying information will only be disclosed with your permission unless we are required by law or if we are concerned about your safety or the safety of others. Visit our Privacy Policy page for more information about data storage and privacy.

When you sign up for the study, you will be taken to the 10-15 minute eligibility survey. Your responses to the eligibility survey will not be saved, so if you exit the survey part way through, you will need to re-commence the survey from the beginning.

If you start and stop either the baseline survey or one of the follow-up surveys, we will send you reminders to pick-up where you left off. Please click on the unique link and log back into your Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub account to finish the survey.

If you can’t find an email or SMS reminder prompt, please contact us and we will send you a survey link to continue with your responses.

Yes, you are more than welcome to tell other mothers who experience anxiety or alcohol use problems about the study. We would really appreciate you spreading the word!

To say that a resource is “evidence-based” is to say that it is informed or supported by evidence. The evidence that supports or backs up a particular resource may take different forms. In the case of the Healthy Mum, Healthy Bub program, “evidence-based” means that the treatment provided is backed by scientific research studies. In particular, it draws on the content and therapeutic cognitive behavioural therapy techniques used in other effective programs, including the effective Inroads anxiety-alcohol program for young people and the Postnatal Anxiety and Depression program for postpartum mothers.

It’s completely understandable to wonder about this. Many participants don’t notice changes straight away, and the pace of progress can vary from person to person. The skills introduced in the modules often take time and practice to apply in everyday life, which means that you might not see improvements in your anxiety and drinking straight away.

Continuing to work through the modules and reporting your experiences as accurately as you can, even if they aren’t what you expect, is really valuable. Your participation helps researchers understand how the program works for different mothers and contributes to improving support for anxiety and drinking concerns.

Yes, absolutely. If you miss a module, you can return to it when you’re able. We encourage you to complete the modules in order, and practice the skills you learn in between, because each week builds on the skills from the previous one. Working through them in sequence helps the program make more sense and supports you to get the most out of it. Life happens, and it’s completely okay to catch up when you can.

We will send you email and SMS reminders to help you remember when you should complete your next module.

A new module will be released weekly, and once they have been released you can complete them whenever and wherever works for you, as long as you have an internet connection. Many new mums find it easiest to listen to audio modules while going about their everyday routines, for example, while feeding, during nap times, or even listening along while cooking or on a quiet drive. There’s no need to find perfect silence or long stretches of time. The program is designed to fit into real life, so you can work through it in the moments that suit you.

The Learn & Apply worksheets may a bit more attention and would benefit from being completed when you have a solid chunk of time (15-30mins) to dedicate to it.

Yes, participants can take part in the study even if they are currently receiving treatment from a health professional. Before starting the program, you’ll be asked some questions about your mental health. This includes whether you are already receiving treatment, the type of support you’re accessing, and how often. Sharing this information helps researchers understand your circumstances and interpret the study results accurately.

There is no payment required for accessing the Healthy Mum Healthy Bub program as part of this study.