JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The transition from child to adult mental health services is complex, involving numerous service contact points for youth, which can lead to service disengagement and worsening mental health issues. Careful planning, personalized support, and strategies to enhance continuity of care are necessary for effective transition processes. However, many youth report insufficient support during this critical period. Widely used technologies, such as text-messaging, offer one possible mechanism for delivering timely informational, motivational, and mental health supports for youth as they transition to adult services.

Objective:

This study explores insights from a Design Jam in which youth with lived experience collaborated in co-design teams to develop prototypes for transition-focused text-message interventions aimed at supporting the move transition from child to adult mental health services.

Methods:

Content analysis of prototype images, observational field notes, and application of the Rapid Identification of Themes from Audio recordings (RITA) method were undertaken to synthesize key features, functionalities, and content of two prototypes.

Results:

Seven youth aged 19–24 attended the Design Jam, generating 54 content ideas and 50 feature ideas. Prototypes varied in proposed duration, frequency of messages, and interactive elements hypothesized to support positive mental health. Key themes centered on tensions around customization/convention, learning/living, and roaming/reconnecting.

Conclusions:

The transition from CAMHS to AMHS requires careful planning and innovative approaches to ensure continuity of care. This study highlights the need to balance technological potentialities with developmentally appropriate transition supports. The Design Jam demonstrated the value of youth involvement in co-designing text-based interventions, resulting in practical prototypes addressing key content and functionality.