Grant: Partnerships for Health System Improvement (PHSI)

Street-involved or homeless youth are subject to dramatic health inequities; specifically they are at increased risk for suicide attempts, substance abuse, injection drug use, survival sex, as well as a wide range of health concerns compared to housed youth of a similar age. Despite this dramatic level of healthcare need, these vulnerable youth are far less likely to seek healthcare and/or social services for a variety of complex reasons including: stigma; discrimination; and barriers to access. By far the largest barrier to improving the circumstances of street-involved youth is the profound difficulty of engaging these youth in helping relationships and services. It is readily acknowledged that significant numbers of youth do not successfully participate in available services and programs that would support positive adaptation and re-integration. Furthermore, our decision making partners indicate that overwhelming mental health issues, such as those identified above, frequently preclude youth from fully engaging in a range of healthcare services (including mental health services), as well as educational or employment programmes, that could ultimately lead to independent and healthy lives. In response to the lack of evidence-based interventions, our group of researchers and knowledge users propose to implement and evaluate (using mixed methods across 3 sites; Toronto, Calgary, & Philadelphia) the effectiveness an innovative multi-component resilience and motivational intervention to meaningfully engage youth who are at the beginning of their journey to end their homelessness youth, in order to adopt healthy behaviours for change and to ultimately support successful exiting from street life. This eight week multi-component intervention will be directed toward the needs of the youth and the care providers, to develop trusting relationships; adopt healthy behaviours f