YouthCan IMPACT team recognized for engaging youth

A special patient-oriented research supplement is recognizing CAMH’s YouthCan IMPACT study for its success in engaging young people to create a model of care that better meets their needs.

YouthCan IMPACT is one of 17 innovative demonstration projects included in Engaging Patients in Health Research: the Ontario Experience, a Canadian Medical Association Journal supplement featuring in-the-trenches experiences, tips and challenges from projects funded by the Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit (OSSU).

“By engaging young people early and throughout the process, we learned so much from them about what system transformation had to involve,” says Dr. Joanna Henderson, Director of the Margaret and Wallace McCain Centre for Child, Youth & Mental Health at CAMH. “Once we engaged young people, there was no turning back because it became so obvious that we had to work this way. Many young people in need of care don’t seek help; if that’s the problem we are trying to tackle, then we realized we had to engage young people to figure out the solution.”

The YouthCan IMPACT team engaged youth early and often as it created a model of care that provided services to young people in their communities on a walk-in, one-stop shop basis. The McCain Centre’s Youth Engagement Initiative team participated through initial focus groups, hosting consultations with young people from across the province, and working with the other members of the research team on an ongoing basis to co-create the research project and the model of service delivery.

“These are the same young people that will use these hubs – they know what works, what doesn’t work, what can be made better,” says Emma McCann, a Youth Engagement Facilitator. 

Inspired by YouthCan’s successful implementation, Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario is bringing the hub model of care to 10 sites across the province with Dr. Henderson as Executive Director. 

“We see our implementation success in YouthCan IMPACT and the tremendous interest in Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario as related to our efforts in youth engagement,” explains Dr. Henderson. “Because we engaged families, youth and service providers, we created something that is appealing to youth, families and service providers and that is designed to meet the needs of young people beyond Toronto and CAMH.”

OSSU is one of 11 units across the country funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research. Through a network of 13 leading health research centres, OSSU provides expertise, infrastructure, training and resources on patient-oriented research, and funds projects that demonstrate the value of this innovative research. 

“The innovative, collaborative approach of these projects underscores Ontario’s role as a leader in putting patients first and in seeking ways to improve patient health and the way health care is delivered,” says Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, Chair of OSSU’s Board of Directors. “We expect that OSSU’s IMPACT projects will live up to their name as they will impact the way we deliver health care, from emergency services to mental health, hip fracture care to heart failure care and more.” 

For more information, view the supplement or listen to the accompanying podcast, which features Dr. Henderson and Youth Engagement Facilitator Jackie Relihan.