Integrated (one-stop shop) youth health care: best available evidence and future directions.

Although mental health problems represent the largest burden of disease in young people, access to mental health care has been poor for this group. Integrated youth health care services have been proposed as an innovative solution. Integrated care joins up physical health, mental health and social care services, ideally in one location, so that a young person receives holistic care in a coordinated way.

Performance of the CORE-10 and YP-CORE measures in a sample of youth engaging with a community mental health service.

This article assesses the performance and psychometric properties of two versions of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE) measures that assess psychological distress: the Young Person's CORE (YP-CORE) for 11-16 year olds and the CORE-10 for those 17 or older. The sample comprised 1592 young people aged 12-25 who completed the YP-CORE and CORE-10 during their initial engagement with an early intervention service. Total and average scores were examined for both measures.

Youth engagement with an emerging Irish mental health early intervention programme (Jigsaw): participant characteristics and implications for service delivery.

Background/aims: The transition to adulthood represents a critical period which influences mental health problems, but access to and utilisation of mental health services by young people is poor. Jigsaw is a response to the challenge of transforming how young people access mental health support and attain positive outcomes. This article presents an overview of the characteristics of young people engaging with this service.

Empirically derived subtypes of serious emotional disturbance in a large adolescent sample.

Purpose: The heterogeneity of serious emotional disturbance has been thoroughly documented among adolescents with nationally representative data derived from structured interviews, although use of these interviews may not be feasible within the context of brief and self-administered school surveys. This study seeks to identify distinct subtypes of serious emotional disturbance in a large school-based sample.

Methods: A total of 108,736 students fully completed the K6 scale that was included on the 2012 Kentucky Incentives for Prevention Survey.

Latent class analysis of need descriptors within an Irish youth mental health early intervention program toward a typology of need.

Aim: Significant overlap and comorbidity has been demonstrated among young people with mental health problems. This paper examined demographic characteristics, heterogeneity of need descriptors and services provided among young people (12-25 years) engaging in brief interventions at Jigsaw in the Republic of Ireland.

Method: Between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2013, a total of 2571 young people sought help from 1 of 10 Jigsaw sites.

The performance of the K6 Scale in a large school sample.

Timely prevalence data of psychiatric morbidity among adolescents in small areas remains vital for mental health policy planning at the regional and local levels. Furthermore, effective regional policy planning also requires the measurement of psychiatric morbidity using clinically validated instruments. The K6 scale was therefore included on the 2012 administration of the Kentucky Incentives for Prevention Survey as a measure of serious emotional disturbance in the past 30 days.

Transforming youth mental health services and supports in Ireland.

Background: Young people in the Republic of Ireland do not have access to appropriate mental health services and supports, necessitating transformational change in delivery systems.

Aims: Describe ongoing development and change efforts facilitated by Headstrong--The National Centre for Youth Mental Health.

Methods: Discusses findings from a national needs assessment, core strategies within the change initiative, progress in system-building, and preliminary descriptive and outcome data.

Jigsaw: engaging communities in the development and implementation of youth mental health services and supports in the Republic of Ireland.

Background: Irish young people exhibit high levels of psychological distress, but community-based services and supports are often unavailable or inaccessible.

Aim: To describe efforts to engage communities in systematic and data-based processes of planning, programme design, implementation, and evaluation.

Method: Details system-building initiatives in five communities (four counties and a distressed urban site) that will serve as a springboard for full national deployment.

The relationship between implementation fidelity and educational outcomes in a school-based family support program: development of a model for evaluating multidimensional full-service programs.

There is increasing recognition of the need for evaluations that identify program processes or mediators and assess degree of program implementation rather than focusing solely on outcome evaluation. This paper describes the application of complementary qualitative and quantitative evaluation procedures to assess the degree of implementation of multi-component family support programs for improving educational outcomes for at risk youth, and to assess the relationship between program implementation and outcomes. The qualitative evaluation involved prolonged engagement to identify common program domains or mediators.