Perceptions of mental health providers of the barriers and facilitators of using and engaging youth in digital mental-health-enabled measurement based care.

Objectives: Increased rates of mental health disorders and substance use among youth and young adults have increased globally, furthering the strain on an already burdened mental health system. Digital solutions have been proposed as a potential option for the provision of timely mental health services for youth, with little research exploring mental health professional views about using such innovative tools. In Alberta, Canada, we are evaluating the implementation and integration of a digital mental health (dMH) platform into existing service pathways.

Development of the Strengths, Skills, and Goals Matrix: a tool for facilitating strengths-based adolescent and young adult engagement in research.

Background: The involvement of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with lived experience of health and mental health conditions as partners in research is increasing given the prominence of participatory approaches to research, including patient-oriented research (POR). Much of the relevant research is conducted by graduate students. While guiding AYA engagement frameworks and models exist, the processes of partnering with AYAs in patient-oriented graduate-level research projects have not been well established.

Transition readiness of youth with co-occurring chronic health and mental health conditions: A mixed methods study.

Background: A large proportion of youth with chronic conditions have mental health comorbidities. However, the effect of these comorbidities on paediatric-adult transition readiness, and the relevance of widely used tools for measuring transition readiness, are unknown.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to describe and explore the transition readiness of youth with co-occurring chronic health and mental health conditions using a combination of quantitative data obtained from participants completing the Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire (TRAQ) and qualitative data.

"They go hand in hand": a patient-oriented, qualitative descriptive study on the interconnectedness between chronic health and mental health conditions in transition-age youth.

Background: Transition-age youth (TAY) with chronic health conditions frequently experience co-occurring mental health conditions. However, little is known about the perspectives of TAY with co-occurring diagnoses preparing to exit pediatric health and mental health services. Research is needed to understand the impact of a mental health condition on transition readiness and self-management in TAY with chronic health conditions.

Recommendations for youth engagement in Canadian mental health research in the context of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in reduced access to in-person mental health services, and a shift to virtual platforms. Youth may be uniquely impacted by physical distancing requirements during the pandemic, including limited socialization opportunities, closures of educational institutions, a lack of meaningful extracurricular activities and adverse implications on key developmental milestones. Due to the potential impact of COVID-19 on youth well-being, the need to rapidly transform services to be accessible, and the potential risks associated with this rapid transformation, it is imperative that youth continue to be engaged in research and service development.