The needs of transitional-aged youth and their families when seeking, accessing and transitioning through mental health and/or addictions care

Family Navigation Project

Transitional-aged youth (TAY) with mental health and/or addictions (MHA) concerns and their families experience significant challenges finding, accessing, and transitioning through MHA care. In order to effectively navigate MHA care for TAY and their families, their experiences in the MHA system must be better understood. We conducted interviews and focus groups with over 60 TAY with MHA concerns, caregivers of TAY with MHA concerns, and TAY service providers to learn about their perspectives on TAY needs when accessing care and how navigation services can support TAY and their families. Identified themes include:  Pathways to care, appropriate and comprehensive care, continuity of care, informed care, youth involvement, family involvement, and navigation supporting TAY and family care. These findings have implications for approaches to supporting youth in the critical transitional-age time-period. Case examples from the Family Navigation Project will be shared to highlight these important considerations in navigating TAY MHA care. This work is generating evidence around the needs of TAY and their families when seeking, accessing, and transitioning through care; particularly in terms of how navigation services can support youth and families in the crucial transitional-age period. Understanding the needs of youth TAY with MHA concerns is generating important findings that inform navigation services while they are new and gaining momentum. Furthermore, this work is generating evidence with applicability for mental health and addiction services in general, and is leading to the broader evidence-base regarding the needs of TAY over the course of their MHA care.

Presenters

Roula Markoulakis
Roula Markoulakis, PhD is a Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute, with a focus on assisting youth with mental health and addiction concerns and their families in accessing needed services and care. With the Family Navigation Project (FNP), she has begun a research program that explores the Navigation model as applied to youth with mental health and/or addictions issues and their families. She believes strongly in youth- and family-oriented research, so that findings can be driven by and mobilized back into the community. 

Liisa Kuuter
Liisa Kuuter, MSc, MFT, RP, is the Program Manager at the FNP. Liisa has been in mental health leadership roles for over 20 years and has considerable experience leading mental health teams in community-based organizations. She has experience working with cross-sectional leaders including hospital, community support services, and mental health and addiction services for program planning, development, and strategy. Liisa has worked as a Clinical Manager/ Director of Service and System Coordinator at various community-based mental health services, and as a Clinical Manager of Mental Health Services with the Petawawa Military Family Resource Centre, supporting military families. She hopes to integrate these many perspectives in her work in order to become a knowledge broker regarding the service integration needs of youth with mental health and addictions issues and their families.

Sugy Kodeeswaran
Sugy Kodeeswaran, MHSc, is the Executive Director of the FNP. With a Master of Health Science degree in Health Administration and 13 years of management experience, she has held a variety of leadership roles in the health research and innovation sector. Her previous experience includes management roles at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and Ontario Genomics, where she was responsible for creating collaborative relationships with industry, government, and academic researchers, which enables her to stimulate partnerships with community mental health agencies for ongoing knowledge exchange and to utilize results from research and clinical feedback to support transformation of the mental health and addiction system.

Key takeaways

Through our session, we hope that participants will:

  • Identify the needs of transitional-aged youth with MHA concerns and their families when seeking, accessing, and transitioning through care
  • Describe how navigation services address these important needs that arise in the transitional-age time period
  • Develop an understanding of how navigation services work with TAY and families and the unique supports offered through navigation

Key Learning Objectives (defined by presenters)

  1. Identify the “dos and don’ts” of authentic youth and family engagement and how to apply them in a meaningful way
  2. Recognize and advocate for meaningful and authentic youth and caregiver engagement

Key Themes

  1. Pathways to care, appropriate and comprehensive care, continuity of care, informed care, youth involvement, family involvement, and navigation supporting TAY and family care

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