Identifying 'Where' and 'How' Peer Support for Youth is Integrated into Community-Based Mental Health Services: A Survey Study.

To mitigate barriers to care among youth (12-25 years), community-based organizations have increasingly integrated peer support as a complement to clinical mental health care; however, information regarding the integration process is lacking. To explore organizational perspectives regarding the contexts and mechanisms underlying integration of peer support for youth accessing mental health services from community-based, youth-serving organizations. Representatives from community-based youth-serving organizations completed a survey describing the contexts in which they are located and their experiences integrating peer support.

Transition symptom management careers: Historical patterns of mental health symptoms and service use among young adults experiencing a psychiatric crisis.

Young adults access mental health services at lower rates than both older and younger age groups despite high levels of need. Mental health service use is known to be influenced by prior experiences with treatment, with episodes of symptoms and treatment producing patterns of service use over time, or what we call a "symptom management career". This qualitative study examined the symptom management careers of 55 young adults (ages 18-25) who were admitted to an inpatient, short term, crisis stabilization unit.

Choice Matters: The Moderating Effect of Choice on the Relationship Between Mental Health Personal Recovery and Symptomatology.

Purpose: Limited research examines how choice surrounding treatment impacts mental health recovery among young adults with serious mental illness (SMI) who are navigating symptom management, complex mental health systems, and developmental expectations of increased independence. This study examines whether perceived choice related to mental health treatment impacts the relationship between symptomatology and personal recovery among Black, Latino/e, and multiracial young adults with SMI.

Methods: Surveys were conducted with 121 young adults with SMI attending a community-based personal recovery-oriented program.

A Mixed Methods Study of Ethnic Identity and Mental Health Recovery Processes in Minoritized Young Adults.

Background/objectives: Ethnic identity development is associated with positive mental health in young adults from ethnic minority groups. How a sense of belonging and attachment to one's ethnic culture is related to personal mental health recovery remains unexplained. This study examines the experiences of ethnic minority young adults in the U.

Engaging Diverse African American/Black and Latine Youth and Emerging Adults Living with HIV into Research: Description of Recruitment Strategies and Lessons Learned.

Improving engagement along the HIV care continuum and reducing racial/ethnic disparities are necessary to end the HIV epidemic. Research on African American/Black and Latine (AABL) younger people living with HIV (LWH) is essential to this goal. However, a number of key subgroups are challenging to locate and engage, and are therefore under-represented in research.

Revisiting the policy ecology framework for implementation of evidence-based practices in mental health settings.

Background: Over the past three decades, policy actors and actions have been highly influential in supporting the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in mental health settings. An early examination of these actions resulted in the Policy Ecology Framework (PEF), which was originally developed as a tactical primer for state and local mental health regulators in the field of child mental health. However, the policy landscape for implementation has evolved significantly since the original PEF was published.

Perspectives on the implementation and collaborative facilitation of an intervention to engage young adults in psychiatric rehabilitation.

Objective: Increasing service user involvement and collaboration with providers has become an important facet of the recovery movement. This study explored perspectives on the implementation and delivery of an intervention (Just Do You [JDY]) designed to improve treatment engagement among marginalized young adults diagnosed with serious mental illnesses.

Method: Informed by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), we conducted in-depth interviews ( = 11) with nine participants that included agency leaders, clinical providers, and researchers involved with the planning, delivery, and evaluation of JDY.

Ethnic Identity and Mechanisms of Mental Health Service Engagement Among Young Adults with Serious Mental Illnesses.

Purpose: Young adults from minoritized racial and ethnic groups have lower rates of engagement in treatment for serious mental illnesses (SMI). Previous research suggests a relationship between ethnic identity development and engagement in mental health services, but it remains unclear how a sense of belonging and attachment to one's racial and ethnic group influences participation in treatment among young adults with SMI.

Methods: Bivariate analyses and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to examine whether ethnic identity was associated with treatment engagement (attendance and investment in treatment) and how ethnic identity might influence engagement through theoretical proximal mediators.

Programmatic Support for Peer Specialists that Serve Transition Age Youth Living with Serious Mental Illness: Perspectives of Program Managers from Two Southern California Counties.

Peer Specialists (PS) often work in outpatient mental health programs serving transition age youth (TAY). This study examines program managers' perspectives on efforts to strengthen PS' professional development. In 2019, we interviewed program managers (n = 11) from two Southern California Counties employed by public outpatient mental health programs (n = 8) serving TAY and conducted thematic analyses.

Feasibility, Acceptability and Preliminary Implementation of the Cornerstone Program for Transition-Age Youth with Mental Health Conditions: A Mixed Methods Study.

Transition-age youth with mental health conditions from low socio-economic backgrounds often drop out of mental health services and, as such, do not receive therapeutic doses of treatment. Cornerstone is an innovative team-based, multi-component intervention designed to address the clinical needs of this understudied population through coordination and extensive provision of services in vivo (in the community). The present study used a convergent parallel mixed-methods design.

Ethnoracial Variation in Risk for Psychotic Experiences.

Background & Hypothesis: Psychotic disorders are inequitably distributed by race in the United States, although it is not known whether this is due to assessment biases or inequitable distributions of risk factors. Psychotic experiences are subclinical hallucinations and delusions used to study the etiology of psychosis, which are based on self-report and therefore not subject to potential clinician biases. In this study, we test whether the prevalence of psychotic experiences (PE) varies by race and if this variance is explained by socioenvironmental risk factors.

Ethnic identity, stress, and personal recovery outcomes among young adults with serious mental health conditions.

Objective: Serious mental illnesses (SMI) often occur during early adulthood, just as young people are developing important aspects of their identity that can affect their recovery. Positive ethnic identity development is associated with stress coping and psychological well-being in young people. But, there is limited research to indicate how individual experiences of belonging and attachment to one's ethnic group influence personal recovery processes among young adults living with SMI.

Clients' Perspectives Regarding Peer Support Providers' Roles and Support for Client Access to and Use of Publicly Funded Mental Health Programs Serving Transition-Age Youth in Two Southern California Counties.

Peer providers are increasingly used by mental health programs to engage transition age youth (TAY, age 16-24) living with serious mental illness. This study elicited TAY clients' perspectives on peer providers' roles, responsibilities, and contribution to TAYs' use of mental health services. In 2019, six focus groups were conducted with TAY clients (n=24) receiving publicly funded mental health services in Southern California.

Methodologies to Advance a "Science of How": Identifying and Engaging Intervention Targets and Outcomes.

Objective: Although implementation science has taken hold in many areas of psychiatric services research, a need remains for developing effective, low-cost interventions for specific subpopulations with mental health conditions. The experimental therapeutics approach has gained momentum as a framework for developing effective interventions. However, few studies have taken steps to rigorously apply experimental therapeutics.

Youths' and Young Adults' Experiences of Police Involvement During Initiation of Involuntary Psychiatric Holds and Transport.

Over the past decade, police involvement in behavioral health crisis response has generated concern and controversy. Despite the salience and timeliness of this topic, the literature on service user experiences of interactions with officers is small and studies of youths and young adults are nonexistent. The authors aimed to investigate youths' and young adults' experiences of police involvement in involuntary psychiatric hold initiation and transport.

Outcomes of a Metaintervention to Improve Treatment Engagement Among Young Adults With Serious Mental Illnesses: Application of a Pilot Randomized Explanatory Design.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to conduct a preliminary evaluation of a new young adult-centered metaintervention to improve treatment engagement among those with serious mental illness.

Methods: Young adults, clinic staff, and policy makers provided feedback on the intervention, which is a two-module engagement program provided by a clinician and person with lived experience (peer) during intake. A two-group pilot randomized explanatory trial design was conducted, comparing treatment as usual with treatment as usual plus the engagement program, Just Do You.

Investigating the impact of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization on youth and young adult trust and help-seeking in pathways to care.

Purpose: Few studies have focused on the experience of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization among youth, especially the impact of these experiences on engagement with mental health services post-discharge. In this study, we contribute to a deeper understanding of youth experiences of involuntary hospitalization (IH) and its subsequent impacts on trust, help-seeking, and engagement with clinicians.

Methods: The study utilized a grounded theory approach, conducting in-depth interviews with 40 youth and young adults (ages 16-27) who had experienced at least one prior involuntary hospitalization.

A Systematic Review of Psychosocial Nutrition Interventions for Young Adults.

Introduction: Few have examined the effects of psychosocial nutrition interventions targeting young adults, a population with low fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption. This study investigated the impact of nutrition interventions with psychosocial content on improving young adult FV intake.

Method: This registered systematic review was guided by the Preferred Reported Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

Identity negotiation processes among Black and Latinx sexual minority young adult mental health service users.

The transition to adulthood presents particular challenges for Black and Latinx sexual minorities in need of mental health services. Identity formation and marginalization during this developmental period can interfere with help-seeking and lead to health disparities. Identity-specific psychosocial supports are needed to assist young adults to successfully navigate these challenges, but research on identity processes, help-seeking, and service-utilization among sexual minority young people of color is very limited.

Young adult trauma symptoms in the context of community violence exposure.

Aims: The primary purpose of this study is to understand how community violence exposure is associated with both common and unique variance characterizing posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms among young adults living in a low-resourced setting.

Methods: Data were collected using a cross-sectional survey design. Participants were recruited from public housing developments in a city in the eastern United States.

Roles of peer specialists and use of mental health services among youth with serious mental illness.

Aim: To examine whether roles of peer specialists affect service use among Black, Latinx and White youth ages 16-24 with serious mental illness (SMI) in Los Angeles and San Diego Counties.

Methods: Administrative data from 2015 to 2018 was used to summarize service use among 6329 transition age youth age 16-24 with SMI who received services from 76 outpatient public mental health programs with peer specialists on staff. Roles of peer specialists were assessed via a program survey.