Published on: 14th August 2025
A pioneering talking therapy designed for children and young people who hear voices, see visions and experience or feel presences that others don’t, has reached the halfway point in its recruitment across Greater Manchester.
30 children in Greater Manchester have now joined the 'ChUSE trial' (short for Children with Unusual Sensory Experiences) – a pioneering feasibility study exploring tailored support for children with distressing sensory experiences
The ChUSE trial is offering the opportunity of tailored support to children aged 8 to 16 and their families. Aiming to include 60 participants in total, the trial is a major step forward in early intervention for children with distressing sensory experiences.
It's delivered in community child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) provided by Pennine Care NHS, Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS and Manchester University NHS. It provides person-centred and symptom-focused support that is not currently available to younger children within CAMHS.
The goal is to reduce distress and the likelihood of more serious mental health challenges in later life.
Dr Diana MacLeod (pictured), CAMHS clinical psychologist at Pennine Care NHS, said: "The ChUSE trial is filling a critical gap in CAMHS. We often see young people who hear voices or have unusual experiences that don't meet the threshold for specialist services but still cause significant distress.
"The ChUSE intervention offers them targeted support – it’s such an important study that could make a lasting difference."
With four months left for recruitment, the trial has now expanded to Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, increasing access for families across Greater Manchester.
Dr Samantha Hartley, principal clinical psychologist at Pennine Care NHS, added: "It’s vital we help children make sense of and cope with their experiences - especially when they’re frightening or confusing.
"While there are well-established therapies for adults, we urgently need child-focused models. ChUSE draws on developmental and systemic approaches and will help close the evidence gap in this area.”
The study is led by Dr Sarah Parry, strategic research lead at Pennine Care NHS’s young people’s mental health research centre and senior clinical lecturer at the University of Manchester, and Professor Filippo Varese of the University of Manchester and associate director of research and innovation at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. It's funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), with a £260,000 investment,
The research addresses a key challenge in children’s mental health: many clinicians feel unprepared to offer psychological therapies for distressing sensory experiences due to a lack of child-specific research in national guidelines.
Findings from the ChUSE trial will inform future therapeutic approaches across England’s children and young people’s mental health services.
You can find out more about the ChUSE study by visiting its project page, or contact the research team at chuse@gmmh.nhs.uk.