Clinician Hub

THIS WAY UP is a not-for-profit initiative of the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety & Depression (CRUfAD), which is a joint facility of St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney and the University of New South Wales.

THIS WAY UP is run by a dedicated team consisting of a program manager, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, programmers, and support staff.

THIS WAY UP is an approved provider of e-mental health interventions for Head to Health and is sponsored by Department of Health and Ageing under the Telephone Counselling, Self-Help, and Web-Based Support Programs initiative.

It is the only platform in Australia that provides clinicians in the community with the ability to prescribe and monitor their own patients through internet-delivered CBT programs using a hospital-grade secure online platform.

Any registered or licensed health professional in Australia and abroad can register as a clinician with THIS WAY UP. It is free and easy to do!

The majority of clinicians using THIS WAY UP are GPs, psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health and allied health professionals.

When you prescribe our programs to your clients you retain clinical responsibility for them. We therefore recommend that you are familiar with managing patients with mental health concerns if you wish to register and prescribe our programs.

If you regularly encounter elevated anxiety and depression symptoms in the clients you work with, but are not be able to provide appropriate clinical support yourself, you can recommend that your clients complete our programs as ‘self-help’ without prescribing them.

When you register as a clinician, you will receive our Programs Handbook, which outlines the clinical content of each of our programs to assist you with treatment planning.

In addition, you gain access to all of the program materials when you prescribe a particular program or you can e-mail us to request a demo code and preview our programs.

Yes! Our programs are suitable as a stand-alone online intervention for those with mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety and/or depressive disorder, and as an adjunct or complementary intervention for those with severe symptoms of anxiety and/or depressive disorder.

All of our treatment programs have been evaluated in clinical trials with individuals who meet the diagnostic criteria for the disorder in question and have established efficacy in treating depression and anxiety disorders. You can learn more about our clinical research here.

Please note, our programs are not suitable as a stand-alone intervention for the following individuals:

• those who are currently suicidal or are at risk of harming themselves or others.
• those with acute symptoms of bipolar disorder, psychosis, or schizophrenia.
• those who are regularly taking benzodiazepines and/or atypical antipsychotics.
• those with acute substance use disorders.
• those in severe distress or currently managing acutely stressful life circumstances.

All of these individuals require a thorough assessment to determine if and how a self-paced online program can add value to their treatment.

Our Wellbeing Programs (i.e., Stress Management, Insomnia, Mindfulness, and Student Wellbeing) are free of charge.

Our Treatment Programs (e.g., The Depression and Anxiety Program) normally cost AUD $59 for 90-days of access* when used as ‘self-help’, but can be accessed for free when prescribed by you using our secure online system.

This means that you can give your clients free access to a course of online CBT treatment if you prescribe it to them using the Clinician Dashboard.

*Please note: For clinician-supervised 8-lesson programs (Chronic Pain, Post Traumatic Stress), your clients will have 120 days to access these programs.

By registering as a THIS WAY UP clinician you will gain access to our secure online platform and will be able to give your clients free access to our programs.

Using your Clinician Dashboard, you will be able to:

(1) ‘prescribe’ a program of iCBT treatment for a particular condition by sending your client an e-mail called a “Quickscript” which contains the instructions on how to sign up to a program that you’ve recommended;

(2) monitor your clients’ progress through their lesson completion and their scores on mental health questionnaires which clients fill out prior to each lesson (e.g., K10, PHQ9, GAD7);

(3) access, preview, and incorporate program materials (e.g., PDF Lesson Summaries, Action Plans, Extra Resources) into your in-person or telehealth treatment;

(4) provide support to your clients if they are falling behind or if their scores remain elevated throughout the program;

(5) discharge your clients from their online CBT treatment once they complete their program.

In addition, you will be able to access free learning materials designed to help you integrate internet-delivered CBT into your routine practice safely and with confidence.

Our team of experienced clinical psychologists is on hand to provide registered THIS WAY UP clinicians with guidance on using iCBT in their routine clinical practice.

There are two main ways your clients can enrol in a THIS WAY UP program.

Option 1. Your clients can enrol into a ‘self-help’ program on their own, which will cost them $AUD 59 for 90 days of access. This option is not linked to the Clinician Portal and you will not have access to their progress.

Option 2. You can give your client free access to a program by ‘prescribing’ it for them (i.e., by sending a ‘Quickscript’ e-mail to their nominated e-mail address using our secure online system). They will then be able to enrol in a ‘supervised’ program and you will be able to monitor them throughout.

The term ‘supervised’ refers to the fact that your client is completing their program under ‘supervision’ or monitoring from you and can contact you if they wish to discuss how they’re going.

It also means that if your client scores highly on a measure of distress (K10) and/or depression (PHQ9) that they complete prior to each lesson, you will receive an e-mail alert advising you of this.

From our experience, clinical supervision is often about providing your client with encouragement to complete the program, helping them overcome barriers to adherence, and supporting your client with tailoring and practicing the skills taught.

By registering as a THIS WAY UP clinician you will gain access to our secure online platform and will be able to give your clients free access to our programs.

Using your Clinician Dashboard, you will be able to:

(1) ‘prescribe’ a program of iCBT treatment for a particular condition by sending your client an e-mail called a “Quickscript” which contains the instructions on how to sign up to a program that you’ve recommended;

(2) monitor your clients’ progress through their lesson completion and their scores on mental health questionnaires which clients fill out prior to each lesson (e.g., K10, PHQ9, GAD7);

(3) access, preview, and incorporate program materials (e.g., PDF Lesson Summaries, Action Plans, Extra Resources) into your in-person or telehealth treatment;

(4) provide support to your clients if they are falling behind or if their scores remain elevated throughout the program;

(5) discharge your clients from their online CBT treatment once they complete their program, noting this in their overall treatment plan/history.

In addition, you will be able to access free learning materials designed to help you integrate internet-delivered CBT into your routine practice safely and with confidence.

Our team of experienced clinical psychologists is on hand to provide registered THIS WAY UP clinicians with guidance on using iCBT in their routine clinical practice.

You will gain access to our free, 6 module iCBT for Foundations for Clinicians Program. This was written for clinicians who may wish to become more familiar with, or revise their understanding of the cognitive behavioural model and the core CBT skills that are taught in our programs. The core CBT skills are applicable across all our programs, rather than being program-specific. This resource is intended to enhance your own professional development, and equip you with more confidence as your patient/client completes a program under your clinical supervision.

You will also have access to a range of CBT resources and worksheets that are commonly used within CBT and within our own iCBT programs. These are available for you to download and send to your patient or clients.

To find out more, head to our Clinician Resources page to preview and download some hand-outs for you and your clients.

Prescribing a program to a client is like prescribing any other active treatment – you retain clinical responsibility for your client and it is anticipated that you check-in with them regularly to monitor how they’re going until they complete their program and can be ‘discharged’ from their online intervention.

Because our programs are fully automated, it only takes a small amount of time to check-in with your clients to help them stay motivated and on track.

While it is not a requirement, our research shows that regular phone or e-mail contact with a client who’s completing an online CBT program significantly improves adherence, and therefore clinical outcomes.

To assist you with monitoring and ‘supervising’ your clients, you are able to view their scores and progress throughout the program from your Clinician Dashboard.

You will also receive an automated e-mail ‘alert’ should one of your clients score highly on a measure of distress (K10) and/or depression (PHQ9). 

You will then be able to use your clinical judgement on how best to follow up and manage that patient’s treatment.

We generally recommend that people work through one program at a time. This typically means that they will be more likely to focus, complete the program and gain maximum benefit. Doing multiple programs simultaneously can be overwhelming and lead to lower adherence.

As comorbidity is common, if your patient/client presents with both low mood and anxiety symptoms, you could consider prescribing the Depression and Anxiety Program to start with. This is our most enrolled-in program as it targets both conditions at once.

Alternatively, you could prescribe the program that targets the problem that is most distressing, interfering with functioning, or that your patient/client is more motivated to address first. After your patient/client has completed their first program, you can then review with them their response to treatment and recommend the next steps, whether this be another THIS WAY UP program or face-to-face CBT.

All of our programs are fully automated, which means that your clients are guided through their program by our system and we are here to provide technical support and assistance.

Our programs have been designed in way that enhances and supports self-guided learning to make it simple for your clients to learn practical CBT skills step-by-step.

Before each lesson, your clients complete a battery of validated mental health questionnaires designed to measure their well-being.

If their scores are high on measures of distress (K10) and/or depression (PHQ9), they receive automatic e-mail alerts with Australian crisis support numbers and advice to seek additional help from their doctor of GP to address how they feel.

They also receive e-mail and text reminders to help them stay on track and complete their program within 90 days*.

When clients enrol in a ‘self-help’ program, they complete it at their own pace and receive e-mail notifications throughout.

When clients enrol in a ‘supervised’ program (prescribed by you), you have the option to view their progress in the Clinician Dashboard and provide additional support (e.g., via in-person/telehealth sessions, e-mail or phone check-ins) at your discretion. You also receive alert e-mails if they score highly on the measures of distress (K10) and/or depression (PHQ9) and can schedule their follow-ups as you see fit.

The team at THIS WAY UP provides technical support but does not monitor individuals as they complete their programs or provide personalised clinical advice.

*Please note: For clinician-supervised 8-lesson programs (Chronic Pain, Post Traumatic Stress), your clients will have 120 days to access these programs.

Yes! We recognise that it may not be appropriate for some clinicians to monitor their clients’ scores on psychometric questionnaires and receive e-mail alerts in case of elevated distress scores, or that they may have other means of monitoring their clients’ progress.

If you do not wish to ‘prescribe’ our programs but would still like to use them in your practice, you can recommend that your clients complete a program and check-in with them at your own discretion.

Majority of our programs are available as ‘self-help’, which means that your clients can enrol through our website and complete the programs independently.

When accessed as ‘self-help’, our treatment programs cost AUD $59 for 90 days of access (with up to 12 months of extended access once completed).

You can download a Treatment Recommendation Patient Handout which you can print and give out to clients with your program recommendations.

While you won’t have access to program materials unless you prescribe that program, you are welcome to e-mail us to request a program demo, so you can see what’s inside.

Alternatively, you can still register as a clinician for free and access clinician-specific resources which outline the content of our programs.

You can begin by downloading our Clinician Starter Guide and reading the Clinician Terms of Use document here.

Once you register as a clinician, you will receive our Programs Handbook to assist you in recommending THIS WAY UP programs. You will also be able to preview the first lesson of each program from within your Clinician Dashboard.

You can also contact us with any questions or schedule a consultation with one of our experienced clinicians.

Remember, we are here to help you integrate e-mental health into your practice safely and with confidence, so if you have any questions about using THIS WAY UP in your practice, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

No. When a patient/client chooses to undertake a program as clinician supervised, ideally this added layer of support is provided by a clinician who knows them personally, has assessed their mental health, has a good understanding of their clinical presentation, mental health history, and unique life situation.

A patient/client should also be more able to access their local clinician for help with tailoring the skills they’re learning to their particular context and to manage any difficulties that arise. Please let us know if we can provide any additional support or training to you or your service around supervising your patients/clients as they work through a program.