Grant: Operating Grant: SPOR Innovative Clinical Trial Multi-Year Grant

Navigation is a model of integrated care that helps patients find their way through complex and fragmented systems, and can be especially important for youth with mental health and/or addictions (MHA) issues and their families. Youth with MHA issues are particularly vulnerable to becoming lost in the MHA system, and their families may experience impacts to their functioning, productivity, and stress. Youth and families living in Sudbury-Manitoulin, Ontario, face even greater barriers and inequities in MHA care. This project will evaluate the implementation of an evidence-based intervention (the Family Navigation Project (FNP)) in Sudbury-Manitoulin, based on the currently existing model in Toronto. At the FNP, navigators directly respond to youth's and families' experiences, needs, and goals in order to alleviate barriers to care, help access the most appropriate services, and ensure their care is well-integrated to address all of their needs. This project will use an implementation science approach with an mixed-methods adaptive pragmatic clinical trial. The first phase involves local needs assessment and co-designing the FNP service for Sudbury. The second phase involves evaluating outcomes experienced by clients through an innovative clinical trial. We will then share what we learned and package the implementation strategy to be adapted for other communities. This project involves a team with a broad range of perspectives. Youth and caregivers will be engaged as members of the research team, to inform project design and activities from their perspectives as individuals with lived experience. Researchers, service providers, and decision-makers are also involved for well-rounded views regarding evidence, front-line care, and policy and sustainability of the intervention. The findings will provide important information for the potential of navigation services to transform youth MHA care across Ontario and Canada.