Grant: Team Gr.: Transitions in Care - Mental Health Care for Post-Secondary Students

There has been growing concern over the spike in mental health problems among post-secondary student (PSS) across Canadian campuses. Despite recent efforts to bolster campus-based mental health services, there remain significant gaps in evidence for service design and delivery in this population, particularly for those PSS with acute mental health care needs such as psychosis or suicidality. These PSS, who may require hospital admissions and use of acute mental health services, face challenges in the transition from hospital back to campus- or community-based mental health services, which can lead to worsening of illness and re-hospitalization. In other healthcare settings, the Navigator Model has been used to support complex transitions between hospital and community-based programs. The goal of this study is to tailor and evaluate the Navigator Model to support transitions from acute mental health services to campus- and community-based mental health services for PSS with emerging or acute mental illness. Our research team will work with national collaborators including patients, clinicians, and administrators to tailor this intervention to the specific needs of PSS, and then evaluate it across three hospital sites serving University of Toronto students. We will recruit 103 PSS from the hospital sites who are receiving navigation services and assess, over the course of 3 months; i) attendance with an appropriate care provider within 30 days of hospital discharge, ii) time to first appointment, iii) changes in participants' mental health and functioning, iii) health service utilization and costs; and iv) participants' satisfaction with the navigator intervention. If successful, this intervention has the potential to result in improved continuity of care and reduce risk of crisis service use and re-hospitalizations among PSS and reduce the burden on campus health and wellness services.