U01MH131827

By Youth, for Youth: Digital Supported Peer Navigation for Addressing Child Mental Health Inequities - Project Summary

Despite significant progress in research, practice, and policy over the past few decades, many children and youth continue to experience poor mental health outcomes based on their socioeconomic disadvantage, ethnic or racial minority status, or immigrant status. African American and Latino youth have 1.5–3 times greater odds of experiencing an unmet mental health need than their white counterparts and are more likely to be negatively impacted by social determinants of mental health related to poverty.

With their unrivaled ability to reach youth, school-based and pediatric primary care services are ideal hubs to provide mental health, healthcare, social services, and prevention to students and families who otherwise face barriers to care. Using participatory design and community partnered participatory research (CPPR), UCLA and UCSF Psychiatry Research Centers, along with the Los Angeles Trust for Children's Health and San Francisco Health Network, propose to:

(1) Fully co-design (with youth, caregivers, clinicians, and other stakeholders) an innovative mental health digital tool, called 4Youth, to implement algorithmically supported mental health and social determinants screening and triage, resiliency apps, and navigation activities. This tool will help support the primary care-clinical workforce within school centers and pediatric services.

(2) Study the implementation of two mental health navigation models separately (Family Navigation+4Youth and Youth Navigation+4Youth), and their combined effectiveness for improving connecting and matching youth to the right level of care and supports.

This project will be initiated with youth aged 11-24 years old, as well as family and community members, across 10 Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) wellness centers and 10 San Francisco Health Network pediatric primary care centers, which primarily serve Black, Latino, and Asian children.

Mobile technology approaches are gaining empirical support and hold great potential for enhancing mental health navigator models. Incorporating scalable digital health tools and statistically evaluated algorithms to aid the navigation process, such as screening, triage, tracking, connecting to care, and multi-level communication, will help ensure youth are receiving optimal care that navigators, providers, and other relevant systems can measure.

A successful outcome of the project is a CPPR developed open-source intervention implementable in school-based and pediatric primary care services, aimed at improving mental health services access for minoritized youth.

Regents Of The University Of California At Riverside

NOT APPLICABLE

93.242 - Mental Health Research Grants

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) [HHS - NIH]

California United States

State-Wide

Change of Recipient Organization (Type 7 Parent Clinical Trial Optional) (PA-21-268)

Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been extended from 06/30/27 to 06/30/28 and the total obligations have increased 205% from $1,886,317 to $5,747,033.