About the UNITE Toolkit
Continuity of care (CoC) during transitions from youth to adult or community-based mental health services is associated with improved functioning, reduced health care costs, decreased mortality, and improved quality of life for youth who need ongoing mental health care into adulthood. However, there is a paucity of research on the implementation and evaluation of interventions to improve CoC for youth transitioning out of child and adolescent mental health services. There is also minimal guidance available for service providers on how to effectively incorporate best practices in transition care into clinical settings. Consequently, clinicians, researchers, and policy makers continue to demand evidence-based resources to support the development and implementation of transition interventions. The Unite Toolkit is an open access, plain-language downloadable transition toolkit to to improve CoC for young people the transition out of youth-oriented mental health services.
The UNITE Toolkit builds on previous research led by the project team and partners across Canada. These projects included strong community engagement, including youth, caregivers, service providers, and administrators. Previous projects include:
View or download a copy of the UNITE Toolkit Core Components Guidebook below.
The UNITE Toolkit builds on previous research led by the project team and partners across Canada. These projects included strong community engagement, including youth, caregivers, service providers, and administrators. Previous projects include:
- A study conducted in partnership Canadian youth, caregivers, and clinicians to identify core components of successful mental health transitions
- A large prospective cohort study across multiple care sites to help us understand what transition pathways look like and how they impact youth
- An evaluation of an intervention to support youth mental health care transitions (the clinician navigator model)
View or download a copy of the UNITE Toolkit Core Components Guidebook below.
How can I contribute to the toolkit?
Share your experiences and ideas about how we can better support youth moving between youth and adult mental health care!
In the next stage of the project, we want to strengthen the toolkit by adding in stories from across Canada of what good mental health care transitions should look like. By submitting a short video, voice note, or written quote, you can contribute to the toolkit and support the implementation standards for mental health care transitions across Canada.
Your perspective is important! Real-life stories are valuable perspectives in mental health care, and are an important way to demonstrate how high-quality pathways and interventions can improve mental health care transitions for young people and everyone who supports them. Has something worked really well for you? Do you have ideas about what the core components should look like in practice? Your perspective strengthens the standards identified in the toolkit and help others understand how to best use them in their community.
In the next stage of the project, we want to strengthen the toolkit by adding in stories from across Canada of what good mental health care transitions should look like. By submitting a short video, voice note, or written quote, you can contribute to the toolkit and support the implementation standards for mental health care transitions across Canada.
Your perspective is important! Real-life stories are valuable perspectives in mental health care, and are an important way to demonstrate how high-quality pathways and interventions can improve mental health care transitions for young people and everyone who supports them. Has something worked really well for you? Do you have ideas about what the core components should look like in practice? Your perspective strengthens the standards identified in the toolkit and help others understand how to best use them in their community.
What type of perspectives are you looking for?
We are looking for submissions from all types of knowledge users and subject matter experts who have experience navigating or supporting youth mental health care transitions.This can include service providers or clinicians, administrators, youth, and family members.
Clinicians, service providers, and Administrators
You provide mental health care or services to youth during or after their transition to adult care, OR you are a Transition Navigator supporting youth with the care transition itself OR you facilitate the implementation of programs supporting youth to adult mental health care transitions |
youth
You are a young person who has recently moved from child/youth services to adult or community mental health care |
Family Members and CareGivers
You are currently supporting, or have recently supported, a young person through the move from child/youth to adult mental health care |
What kind of content can I submit?
We want to develop a user-friendly, interactive, online resource library with real-life stories integrated throughout. These stories can be communicated through videos (1-2 minutes), voice notes or audio recordings (1-2 minutes), or written quotes. These should connect with the content in the transition core components or toolkit documents.
What should my submission be about?
Content submissions should align with one of the core components discussed in the toolkit. For example, consider the questions below:
- How can developing an organization-specific transition policy with describe the organization’s approach to mental health care transitions? (Component 1.2)
- Why is it essential to include youth (and family members/caregivers, where appropriate) in developing an organization-specific transition policy? (Component 1.2)
- How can clear responsibilities be determined for all roles inside and outside of an organization involved in a care transition, and how can these roles be informed by each individual young person? (Component 1.5)
- What are meaningful ways to partner with youth (and family members, where appropriate) at all phases of moving between youth and adult mental health care? (Component 1.6)
- How can youth be involved in decision making surrounding their transition to adult mental health care, and why is this important? (Component 1.6)
- How can you create an individualized care transition plan, and keep it up to date? (Component 4.5)
- How can care providers collaborate with youth (and family members, where appropriate) to create an individualized transition plan? Why is this important? (Component 4.5)
If you are interested in contributing the the toolkit and submitting a story, please connect with our team at [email protected]
About this Project
The "Transitions In Practice: Implementing National Youth Mental Health Transition Standards Across Canada" Project, or TIPS, was funded in 2022 through a CIHR Catalyst Grant. Through previously funded research and knowledge translation activities, our team has developed standards to guide successful youth-to-adult mental health care transitions. These standards have been established through extensive knowledge synthesis and with the use of co-design strategies including all types of subject-matter experts (youth, caregivers, service providers, administrators), and have been summarized into a transition toolkit. The goal of the current project is to improve the uptake of these standards into practice nation-wide through engagement and co-design with knowledge users from diverse communities across Canada.