Search

This exploratory study described the distribution of mental health service costs in youth with mental disorder and determined if costs differed for youth with comorbid internalizing and externalizing disorder compared to those with comorbid internalizing disorders. Data come from youth (8–17 years; n=75) receiving mental health services at a children's hospital in Canada. Billing amounts specified in the Health Insurance Act of Ontario were used to estimate costs. Overall, past-year service use costs were $7436.63. Hospitalizations represented the largest cost. Youth with comorbid internalizing and externalizing disorders had higher total (β=0.81 [0.17, 1.45]), hospital (β=0.93 [0.03, 1.84]), and professional (β=0.87 [0.04, 1.69]) costs. These preliminary findings suggest that comorbidity type is associated with the costs of past-year mental health services used by youth. Research is needed to understand the reasons for elevated costs and whether the increased services used by youth with comorbid internalizing and externalizing disorders are effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth aging out of the foster care system have well-documented challenges when transitioning to adulthood. Multiple transition services provide support in the transition process; however, limited research is available regarding youth's perceptions of programming. In this pilot study, sixteen youth between ages 18 and 20 participated in semi-structured interviews, support mapping, and resiliency measurements to gather the experiences of the transition from foster care. Comparisons between those who chose initial transition supports and those who did not receive or delayed receiving transition supports were initially explored. Common themes emerged in participants' needs and perceived resiliency regardless of transition support services. All youth reported relationship, trust, and concern for well-being as highly important characteristics in transition team members. A need for earlier transition programming, decision-making opportunities, and life skills courses were important themes in transition programming needs. Implications for policy, research, and practice are presented based upon findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the youth mental health system, there is an international movement toward developing community-based service hubs that provide integrated, collaborative care to youth. However, the implementation of multisystem collaboration is complex and can be hampered by barriers. This paper presents a formative evaluation of the YouthCan IMPACT integrated youth services project based on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), to identify facilitators and barriers to successful implementation. Results highlight that previous positive working relationships along with collaborative investment of resources from partnering organizations are essential to implement an integrated youth service model. In addition, it is important that representative members of all key stakeholder groups, including staff, youth, and caregivers, be involved in the development and execution of the project to ensure effective implementation. Attention to the facilitators and barriers to implementation may help teams seeking to implement highly collaborative, integrated models of service delivery for youth in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing measures of attitudes toward evidence-based practices (EBPs) assess attitudes toward manualized or research-based treatments. Providers of youth behavioral health (N = 282) completed the Valued Practices Inventory (VPI), a new measure of provider attitudes toward specific practices for youth that avoids mention of EBPs by listing specific therapies-some of which are drawn from EBPs (e.g., problem solving) and some of which are not included in EBPs (e.g., dream interpretation). Exploratory factor analysis revealed two factors: practices derived from the evidence base (PDEB) and alternative techniques (AT). The PDEB scale was significantly correlated with scales on the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale-50 (Aarons et al. in Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 39(5): 331-340, 2012), whereas the AT scale was not. Attitudes toward PDEB and AT were also related to provider characteristics such as years of experience and work setting. The VPI offers a complementary approach to existing measures of attitudes because it avoids mention of EBPs, which may help prevent biases in responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A paucity of research exists in which the co-occurrence of substance use, mental illness, and violence in young adults is examined. Concurrently, there is also a lack of research explicating the contribution of theoretically based risk factors for these problematic outcomes in this population. This lack of both outcome and explanatory research equally affects the utility of theories and interventions for this population. This article utilizes a sample of N = 633 21-year-olds to examine the prevalence of (1) violence and substance use, (2) mental illness (i.e., mood and anxiety disorders) and substance use, and (3) the use of multiple substances and investigates the relationship between various social determinants and said outcomes. Overall, the prevalence rates for the comorbid conditions were low; although on average males had higher rates than did females. Individual attitudes, perceived opportunities, and recent stressful life events were associated with the co-occurrence of outcomes. Implications for behavioral health are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]