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The objective of this paper was to examine the school-related experiences of youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants represented both clinical and community youth aged 14 to 28 who were sampled as part of a larger study. Feedback from youth attending school during the pandemic was qualitatively examined and youth who planned to attend school prior to the pandemic and did (n = 246) and youth who planned to attend but did not (n = 28) were compared quantitatively. Youth appreciated the flexibility of online learning and some also reported experiencing a lack of support from their school and the need for instructor training on how to deliver virtual classes effectively. Future studies should examine what factors influence student engagement with virtual learning, what strategies could improve supports for student in their long-term career development, and the longitudinal experiences of youth who may have chosen not to go back to school due to the pandemic. This survey was conducted in Ontario, Canada. A more diverse sample collected outside of Ontario would improve generalizability. Qualitative data were based on survey responses and not interviews. Thus we were unable to discern the reasons youth decided to attend school, or not, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: Integrated youth services (IYS) are an emerging model of care offering a broad range of mental health and social services for youth in one location. This study aimed to determine the IYS service characteristics most important to youth, as well as to determine whether different classes of youth have different service preferences, and if so, what defines these classes. Methods: Ontario youth aged 14–29 years with mental health challenges were recruited to participate in a discrete choice experiment (DCE) survey. The DCE contained 12 attributes, each represented by 4 levels representing core characteristics of IYS models. To supplement the DCE questions, demographic information was collected and a mental health screener was administered. Preferences were examined, latent class analyses were conducted, and latent classes were compared. Results: As a whole, participants endorsed the IYS model of service delivery. Among 274 youth, there were three latent classes: 1) the Focused Service (37.6%) latent class prioritized efficient delivery of mental health services. 2) The Holistic Services (30.3%) latent class prioritized a diverse array of mental health and social services delivered in a timely fashion. 3) The Responsive Services (32.1%) latent class prioritized services that matched the individual needs of the youth being served. Differences between classes were observed based on sociodemographic and clinical variables. Conclusions: IYS is an acceptable model of care, in that it prioritizes components that reflect youth preferences. The differences in preference profiles of different groups of youth point to the need for flexible models of service delivery. Service design initiatives should take these preferences into account, designing services that meet the needs and preferences of a broad range of youth. Working locally to co-design services with the youth in the target population who wish to be engaged will help meet the needs of youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are growing calls to engage service users in research about issues relevant to them. Youth and family members can make meaningful contributions to research projects, improving quality and relevance. However, more information is needed on the contributions that youth and family members can make to various study designs. Objective: This paper describes the contributions that youth and family members have made to a multi‐site pragmatic randomized‐controlled trial, YouthCan IMPACT, and the way project‐based engagement learnings accelerated change at the institutional level and beyond. Results: Youth and family members were full members of the project team, including the project's core governance and working groups. They contributed to project leadership, as funding co‐applicants and as equal members of the governance team. They were also engaged in study design. Youth defined the primary outcome measure and contributed to decisions on all secondary measures. The service pathway was co‐designed with youth and family members; for example, they guided the inclusion of peer support and a family member intervention as core service components. Study implementation contributions included ensuring a youth‐ and family‐friendly research process and training research staff on working with youth and family members. Knowledge translation activities have included youth and family members as co‐presenters and manuscript co‐authors. The learnings from this trial have been leveraged to expand youth and family engagement at the institution and beyond. Conclusions: Youth and family members make substantial contributions to complex research projects, including randomized‐controlled trials, thereby improving project design, study implementation, associated interventions, and knowledge translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To examine mental health in conjunction with physical health during the COVID‐19 pandemic among youth with physical health conditions compared to those without. Methods: A cross‐sectional survey of 622 youth aged 14 to 28 was conducted. Analyses were conducted to understand the changes in mental and physical health among youth in four groups: (a) participants with a friend or family member diagnosed with COVID‐19, (b) participants with symptoms associated with COVID‐19, (c) participants with atopic conditions (asthma and allergies), and (d) participants with other preexisting physical health conditions. Results: Many participants with physical health concerns met screening criteria for an internalizing disorder, which was significantly higher than the rate found among participants without physical health conditions. Significantly greater declines in self‐reported mental health were observed during the COVID‐19 period compared to 3 months earlier among youth reporting physical health concerns compared to those without physical health concerns. Substance use does not appear to have been affected. Conclusions: Mental health concerns are highly prevalent among youth with physical health concerns, and also appear to be exacerbated by the COVID‐19 pandemic. Physical health concerns appear to constitute risk factors for heightened mental health responses to the pandemic situation. System planners striving to adapt mental health services to meet social/physical distancing recommendations are urged to consider youth with physical health conditions and ensure that adequate integrated mental health and physical health supports are available to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The issue of youth who are not engaged in education, employment or training has been a focus of policymakers for decades. Although interventions exist for these youth, they often measure success in ways that fail to capture what youth seek to gain. The project aims to address this gap by assessing youth‐oriented outcomes for interventions targeting upcoming youth. Acknowledging the stigma attached to the deficit‐based notion of not engaged in education, employment or training, hereafter we refer to 'upcoming youth', a term coined by youth partners on the project. This study asks what youth want to achieve by participating in an intervention for upcoming youth, with a view to guiding service and research design. Methods: A mixed‐methods discrete choice experiment will be conducted with youth engaged as partners. A qualitative (focus group) stage will be conducted to design discrete‐choice experiment attributes and levels. The experiment will be piloted and administered online to approx. 500 youth (aged 14‐29) across Canada to identify the outcomes that youth prioritize for interventions. Latent class analyses will then be conducted to explore clusters of outcomes that different groups of youth prioritize. Conclusions: From a strengths‐based recovery‐oriented framework, hearing the voices of the target population is important in designing and evaluating services. This youth‐oriented research project will identify the intervention outcomes that are the highest priority for upcoming youth. Findings will inform the development, implementation and testing of interventions targeting relevant outcomes for youth who are not engaged in education, employment or training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Depression in adolescents is common and debilitating. Treatment approaches vary widely across clinics and may not reflect evidence‐based care. Integrated care pathways (ICPs) are implementation tools to facilitate bridging the gap between rigorous but often complex clinical practice guidelines and what is actually practiced. We describe the development of an ICP for the treatment of Adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD‐A) based on the best‐available clinical practice guidelines and derived in collaboration with clinicians, administrators, youth partners and caregivers. Methods: With clinician and health service manager input, we took the recommendations from a high quality clinical practice guideline (the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence Clinical Practice Guideline for Depression in Children and Young People) and translated them into an ICP. Feedback from youth partners and clinicians was iteratively incorporated into the current version of the pathway using a collaborative approach. Results: The current iteration of the pathway at a Canadian tertiary care teaching hospital is described. All youth (and caregivers, if applicable) are offered a multi‐family psychoeducation session, a 16‐session Group Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and team reviews every 4 weeks that include measurement‐based care. Conditional branches of the pathway include a medication algorithm and an 8‐session group for caregivers. Conclusions: The resulting ICP provides a tool to facilitate bridging the gap between evidence and clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]