Grant: Project Grant

Seventy-five percent of mental health disorders develop by the age of 25, yet only 20% of youth seek mental health services. Integrated youth services (IYS) can help support service use, as they provide many different types of services (e.g., mental health, substance use) and options (e.g., in-person, digital) all under one roof for youth ages 12-24. However, there are gender and racial differences in how youth use services, and communities have identified a need to co-develop tools to increase service use with youth to support their mental health. The following study will develop and test a digital toolkit to help increase service use by underprivileged youth. The study team will work in partnership with youth and IYS service providers to co-develop a digital toolkit using an online learning platform called Tapestry. This toolkit will support youth decisions to access mental health services at IYS across Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario). The study will have four phases and be guided by relevant frameworks/models. In Phase 1, the team will make decisions about what curriculum should be included in the toolkit in a series of dialogues based on findings from two pilot studies. In Phase 2, the team will work with Tapestry developers to co-produce the modules based on the curriculum developed in phase 1 and test them in youth focus groups. In Phase 3, the team will measure whether viewing the modules increases youth decision-making to access mental health services and test the toolkit in a larger sample of youth across Canada. In Phase 4, the team will develop a youth engagement in research manual, building on the first three phases of this study. Our toolkit aims to increase use of mental health services at IYS across Canada. Our study will also give youth opportunities to engage in research, develop research skills, and create a digital toolkit to support youth mental health, as well as provide guidance for including youth at all phases of research.