Key attributes of integrated community-based youth service hubs for mental health: a scoping review

Abstract

Background Community-based, integrated youth service hubs have the potential to address some of the longstanding issues with mental health services for youth, including problems with access and system fragmentation. Better understanding of these approaches, particularly efforts to create a single point of entry to comprehensive, evidence-based services through youth service hubs, is needed to help guide future implementation and evaluation. This scoping review identifies the key principles and characteristics of these models of care, as well as the state of the literature, particularly with regard to implementation and replicability. Method Electronic databases and grey literature sources were searched for material from 2001 to 2019, with diverse search terms capturing the concept of “integrated” or “one-stop shop” youth mental health services. Title/abstract and full text review were conducted, as well as additional focused searching. After screening 4891 texts at the title/abstract level and 496 at the full-text level, 110 documents were included for data extraction. Results Several integrated care hub models for youth mental health services and related frameworks were identified internationally, largely in high-income countries. Common principles included an emphasis on rapid access to care and early intervention, youth and family engagement, youth-friendly settings and services, evidence-informed approaches, and partnerships and collaboration. Program characteristics also revealed similarities (e.g., providing evidence-informed or evidence-based services in youth-friendly spaces), with some differences (e.g., care coordination methods, types of service providers), potentially attributable to lack of available information about key ingredients. Outcome research was limited, with few rigorous evaluations of youth outcomes. Moreover, sufficient information for replication, community evaluation of feasibility or actual implementation was rarely provided. Conclusion Internationally, integrated youth service hubs were found to share common key principles, while providing comprehensive services to youth with mental health difficulties. There is a great need for common language and measurement framework to facilitate replication, rigorous evaluation of outcomes, knowledge exchange, and dissemination of findings.

Investigating the critical elements and psychosocial outcomes of Youth Flexible Assertive Community Treatment: a study protocol for an observational prospective cohort study

“…Practical experiences and literature indicate that these young people have a hard time accessing and remaining in regular outpatient mental healthcare 4 33 38. Several reasons for treatment disengagement in adolescents have been suggested, such as fragmented healthcare system,50 treatment discontinuity51 52 and difficulty to trust services 53. According the Youth Flexible ACT model description4 young people are eligible for Youth Flexible ACT care if:…”

Demographic and clinical characteristics of foreign residents who visited hospitals for mental health problems in Japan: A multicenter study in a metropolitan area

“…Community-based integrated care system and implementation Based on the above results, further research is needed to reveal how host societies can enrich opportunities for immigrants' mental health and improve access to social networks for support. There is an international movement toward developing a community-based integrated mental health service, in which mental health professionals and policy makers work together [56][57][58]. Recent review articles have suggested that an integrated care system for young people was effective for the prevention of mental illness and for early intervention [42].…”

Examining partnerships within an international knowledge translation network focused on youth mental health promotion

“…In addition, researchers have argued that the analysis of social connections within networks is the most valuable way to reveal the smaller scale interactions that influence broad scale patterns [4]. Integrated youth service (IYS) is a collaborative model that brings organisations together to provide holistic care that often includes mental health, substance use and addictions, primary care (including sexual health) and other social services [5][6][7][8][9]. Frayme is an international knowledge translation (KT) network designed to support the uptake and scaling of IYS [5,10].…”