Who
mindyourmind and professionals involved in London’s Transition Age Project (TAP) worked with 10 young people from London, ON and area: Alec, Alex, Christel, Cole, Elora, Jesse, Jourdan, Luke, Rachael, and Scarlett.
What
As part of what is called the Transition Age Project (TAP), local service providers and mental health organizations in the London-Middlesex area have committed to developing a plan and protocol for youth in child and adolescent mental health services who are close to reaching the age cut off for these services but are still needing more help. The goal of the protocol is for youth with mental health and addiction issues in the London-Middlesex area to have a planned, consistent, and successful transition from child and adolescent mental health services into appropriate adult services. TAP’s Community Implementation Team (TAPCIT), which is a community partnership, met over a period of a year to discuss what would be important for this tool and how to make it youth-friendly. They wanted mindyourmind’s help to co-create the tool with young people in London and area.
How
mindyourmind recruited a group of interested and passionate young people ages 16-26 who either would be approaching the transition soon or who had already received treatment in both the youth and adult systems. We wanted their input on what they think would be helpful in the plan, whether that was from the perspective of someone who is currently feeling anxious and overwhelmed at the thought of aging out of youth services or from the perspective of those who had already gone through the process (with or without a smooth transition). Over the course of a weekend we facilitated a Design Studio with these young people to brainstorm, journey map, review other current transition protocol tools across the province, and narrow down what they thought London’s should look like and include. They provided mindyourmind with a lot of great content and ideas to work with and put together. Stay tuned for the final product!
Why
Many studies have shown that the most common outcome of a poor transition is that youth with enduring mental health concerns and continuing needs disengage from service, and this is happening in approximately 60% of known cases (Ontario Centre of Excellence, 2011). A large portion of these youth are then resurfacing in the system a few years later but in inpatient and crisis settings (Pottick et al., 2008), and this suggests that without a proper transition young people are falling through the cracks and they aren’t getting help again until their condition severely worsens. TAPCIT wanted to put a protocol and plan in place for London so that service providers have some tools and guidelines to ensure young people know their options and are being supported as they transition into adult services, rather than being left to figure it out on their own and potentially falling through the cracks as mentioned above.