JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The pandemic brought unprecedented challenges for child and youth mental health. There was a rise in depression, anxiety, and symptoms of suicidal ideation. This created challenges for health systems and schools as they adjusted to implementing Telehealth and novel models of mental health care, including hybrid in person and online digital tools.

Objective:

The aims of this knowledge synthesis were to gain a deeper understanding of what types of mental health knowledge translation (KT) programs, mental health first aid training, and positive psychology interventions were developed and evaluated for youth mental health. We compared digital with hybrid program implementation methods.

Methods:

Methods:

We undertook a scoping review of PubMed/ Medline and Google Scholar for all eligible studies on digital and face to face program for youth MH published during the pandemic (2020-2022). Keywords for implementation and mental health were used to identify eligible studies based on the inclusion criteria.

Results:

Results:

A total of 36 studies were included in the review. Youth mental health first aid training interventions increased knowledge and self-efficacy but did not lead to high levels of support involving peer to peer or parent to peer discussions on mental health, outreach, or changes in mental health outcomes. We identified several KT programs that engaged with a wide range of stakeholders during the pandemic. Many were informed by KT theories. Key challenges during implementation of MH programs for youth included lack of access to technology and privacy concerns. Hybrid online and face to face KT and MH care was recommended. All of the six mental health first aid training programs found increases in knowledge and 80% found increases in self-efficacy for providing help. However, none of the programs found measurable changes in help seeking behaviour.

Conclusions:

Conclusion: Future research should aim to maximize the benefits of hybrid models of tele-mental health and face to face sessions, while working on minimizing the potential barriers that were identified. There is an opportunity to integrate BCTs with theories and a wide range of media for first aid training, and to reduce the barriers with implementing tele-mental health in youth by providing adequate technological access, WIFI and stationary internet connectivity, and privacy protection. , future programs could consider combining mental health first aid training with hybrid digital and face to face mental health program delivery along with mindfulness and resilience building in a unified model of care, knowledge dissemination and implementation.There is a need to undertake more research on youth mental health first aid training including the barriers and facilitators of effective KT that lead to behaviour change that is measurable and sustained.