New app supports parents of critically ill children at Addenbrooke’s
My PICU Story offers practical help and mental health support
A new app has been developed to support parents whose children are critically ill and admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Addenbrooke's Hospital.
The app, called My PICU Story, offers practical help, answers to urgent questions, and support to help prevent long-term mental health issues for stressed parents.
Parents of children admitted to PICU for various reasons, including accidents, cancer, post-surgical complications, and severe infections, have contributed feedback for the app's development.
Claire Wroe, whose seven-month-old son, Teddy, spent significant time in PICU, shared her appreciation: "It’s just brilliant – as are the staff at Addenbrooke’s who have saved Teddy’s life several times."
Dr Nazima Pathan, project lead, a PICU consultant, and University of Cambridge Associate Professor, explained the app's significance: "The stress of a PICU admission doesn’t end when the child gets better. A third to half of parents go on to develop post-traumatic stress, anxiety, or depression. It is heartbreaking to families and costly to the wider economy with an estimated impact of around £14,000 per parent each year, and £1100 in direct healthcare costs as a result of the need for support from GPs and community mental health services."
"This equates to around £15m a year for treating the 30-50 per cent of parents who go on to develop significant PTSD after their child’s PICU admission."
Features of My PICU Story
My PICU Story is described as "the first co-designed digital support tool for parents of critically ill children." Developed over two years, it involved doctors, nurses, psychologists, counsellors, parents, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT), and RJDM.
The app provides cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)-informed coping and sleep tools, exercises to manage overwhelming emotions like stress and anxiety, journaling opportunities, sibling resources, and plain-English explanations of intensive care procedures.
Parents can share messages and pictures with staff, read an illustrated PICU story written by PICU senior sister Clare King for children, and access information on accommodation, visiting, parking, and PICU facilities.
Future Plans and Community Integration
Dr Pathan outlined future goals: "The next step is to see what parents find helpful and to integrate some personalised support for mental health that they can take into the community to prevent their stress and trauma becoming debilitating."
"By reaching parents early, we hope in the longer term, we will be able to reduce dependency on GP and community mental health services by parents going through the trauma of a PICU admission."
"Though there are some diary apps licensed for use as journal and communication tools in the PICU and NICU setting, ‘My PICU Story’ offers more. It is a scalable, evidence-based community mental health intervention that turns intensive care into a point of prevention, not the start of another illness."
ACT CEO Shelly Thake said: "Having a really sick child is every parent’s worst nightmare and I know our supporters will be proud that the charity is supporting the development of such a practical source of help."
My PICU Story is available for download on Apple and Google Play stores.