Youth Research Unit, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research at The Royal, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Health Expect. 2022 Apr;25(2):617-627. doi: 10.1111/hex.13409. Epub 2021 Dec 24.
It is critical that mental health systems place a focus on prevention and early intervention focused on young people while integrating youth voice to guide priority directions.
This study was designed to better understand how youth advisories can be utilized to influence strategic directions within integrated knowledge mobilization networks operating within the youth mental health system.
To support this objective, we reviewed the detailed stages of development in establishing a youth advisory within a national network designed to support the integration of youth services. We also engaged the advisory in a participatory evaluation process that examined the extent to which the network had created processes to include youth voice in decision-making.
Results from the surveys identified moderate to high levels of individual engagement as well as strong development of processes and procedures that support the inclusion of youth voice across the network.
Major successes and challenges are presented and discussed with respect to the development of the advisory. The findings are useful for youth advocates and adult allies working to support youth engagement (YE) in knowledge mobilization to enhance the mental health services system. This study also contributes to research and evaluation efforts examining YE and represents an exemplar methodology for evaluating YE efforts at the system level.
Young people as mental health service users and youth mental health advocates were involved in the design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of the data as well as the preparation of this manuscript.
心理健康系统必须注重预防和早期干预，以年轻人为重点，并整合青年声音来指导优先方向。
本研究旨在更好地了解青年顾问如何能够被用来影响青年心理健康系统内综合知识传播网络中的战略方向。
为了支持这一目标，我们回顾了在一个旨在支持青年服务整合的国家网络中建立青年顾问的详细发展阶段。我们还让顾问参与了一个参与式评估过程，该过程检查了网络在多大程度上创造了将青年声音纳入决策的过程。
调查结果表明，个人参与程度中等偏高，并且在整个网络中支持青年声音的纳入的过程和程序得到了有力的发展。
提出并讨论了与顾问发展相关的主要成功和挑战。这些发现对于支持青年参与（YE）知识传播以加强心理健康服务系统的青年倡导者和成人盟友来说是有用的。本研究还为研究和评估青年参与（YE）的工作做出了贡献，并代表了在系统层面评估 YE 工作的典范方法。
作为心理健康服务使用者和青年心理健康倡导者的年轻人参与了设计、数据收集、数据分析和解释以及本手稿的编写。
