Comparative effectiveness and public health impact of a youth mental health intervention package
U ReininghausAbstract
Background
Most mental disorders first emerge in adolescence and early adulthood and contribute substantially to disease burden. However, large-scale comparative research on youth-friendly mental health interventions is lacking. The YOUTHreach consortium aims to bridge this gap and evaluate the comparative effectiveness and public health impact of a youth mental health prevention and early intervention package in eight European countries and Australia.
Methods
In three multi-country, hybrid effectiveness-implementation studies, YOUTHReach examines public health impact in terms of a) reach, b) effectiveness, c) adoption, d) implementation, and e) maintenance of three existing and accessible innovative interventions for prevention and early intervention developed and tested in co-creation with youth: 1) YEAH, walk-in youth mental health support centres; 2) SELFIE, a transdiagnostic blended ecological momentary intervention; and 3) MOST, a clinical and peer-moderated digital youth mental health platform. The hybrid effectiveness-implementation design will be combined with an economic evaluation and participatory process evaluation.
Results
Data will be presented on the co-creation and prior efficacy testing of the three interventions of the youth mental health prevention and early intervention package, including data on short- and long-term effects and putative mechanisms of action. These findings will be presented alongside with data on participant flow in the hybrid effectiveness-implementation studies, for which data collection is still ongoing.
Conclusions
Findings from the three multi-country, hybrid effectiveness-implementation studies will provide important insights into public health impact and comparative effectiveness of the YOUTHReach mental health prevention and early intervention package and may help inform the transformation of the present traditional mental healthcare system to improve young people’s health, wellbeing and productivity.