Patient Engagement in Adolescent Mental Health Intervention Design and Development

• Author / Creator

  Ali, Amber Z

• Meaningful development and evaluation of mental health care services requires the involvement of individuals who use the services. However, the lived experiences of children and adolescents with mental health concerns as well as their parents/caregivers are seldom considered in studies seeking to improve child and adolescent mental health care. The aim of this thesis was to conduct research focused on patient engagement in child and adolescent mental health care. A scoping review (study 1) was conducted to identify approaches to engagement used in studies focused on child and adolescent mental health care design, development, or evaluation, and to summarize study-reported barriers, constraints, and facilitators to engagement. This review demonstrated that in the majority of studies an explicit framework, such as experience-based co- design (EBCD), was not used to guide engagement of children, adolescents, and their parents/caregivers. Constraints and barriers such as time restrictions limiting prolonged engagement/study progress, difficulties with recruitment, and limited generalizability of study findings were commonly reported by study teams. A mixed-method study (study 2) was conducted in two phases using the principles of EBCD and the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior (COM-B) model. In phase 1, two discharge communication interventions for pediatric mental health care in the emergency department (ED) were co-designed with a team of parents/caregivers and ED clinicians: a brochure for families and clinicians to use together during the ED visit, and a text-messaging system for families after the visit. In phase 2, the usability of these interventions was tested by a sample of clinicians, parents, and youth. There was high engagement satisfaction in phase 1, and high user satisfaction in phase 2. Usability testing feedback was used by the co-design team to improve the final intervention versions. Taken together, the two studies demonstrated the importance of engaging patients in mental health research and highlighted important considerations for researchers to consider when conducting intervention-based mental health studies.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Patient engagement
  • Mental health
  • Emergency care
  • Co-design
  • Patient and public involvement

• Graduation date

  Spring 2023

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-kgsb-z202

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.