title: A Review of Effective Youth Engagement Strategies for Mental Health and Substance Use Interventions.
abstract: The majority of adult mental health and substance use (MH&SU) conditions emerge in adolescence. Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment programs targeting this age group have a unique opportunity to significantly impact the well-being of the future generation of adults. At the same time, youth are reluctant to seek treatment and have high rates of dropout from interventions. An emphasis on youth engagement in prevention and treatment interventions for MH&SU results in better health outcomes for those youth. This literature review was undertaken to evaluate opportunities to improve youth engagement in MH&SU programs. The intent was to determine best practices in the field that combined community-level improvement in clinical outcomes with proven strategies in engagement enhancement to inform program development at a local level. The results discuss 40 studies, reviews, and program reports demonstrating effective youth engagement. These have been grouped into six themes based on the underlying engagement mechanism: youth participation in program development, parental relationships, technology, the health clinic, school, and social marketing. A broad range of tools are discussed that intervention developers can leverage to improve youth engagement in prevention or treatment programs.
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dunne
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada; School of Pharmacy, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada. Electronic address: ldbishop@mun.ca.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bishop
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Avery
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Darcy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012574:Schools; D061108:Social Media; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Community-based interventions; Interventions; Mental health; Substance use; Youth; Youth engagement