Essential components of integrated care for youth with mental health and addiction needs: protocol for a scoping review

INTRODUCTION: Efforts to move towards integrated care have been met with increased interest and enthusiasm in recent years given the potential to improve care and population health while containing costs. However, there is a need to better understand community-based integrated care approaches for youth with mental health and/or addiction concerns to guide future implementation efforts and develop a set of standards for key components. The objectives of this scoping review are to: (1) identify the populations, settings, service providers, interventions, infrastructure and care coordination methods that have been included in integrated care for youth with mental health and/or addiction needs and (2) identify constructs that have been measured and evaluated (eg, outcomes, engagement) in the context of youth integrated care. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Seven electronic databases and several grey literature sources will be searched for material from 2001 to 2016. Inclusion criteria will be broad with respect to type of work, as we will include all types of research studies as well as non-research studies that provide information relevant to characteristics and constructs measured in the context of integrated care for youth mental health. Titles and abstracts will be independently screened for eligibility by two raters using inclusion criteria. Full-text articles will then be accessed and independently screened for inclusion. A formal data extraction method will be employed, enabling synthesis of results in quantitative and qualitative formats. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Results will be widely disseminated to various stakeholders to inform implementation and research efforts. Findings will also launch a Delphi method study leading to the development of an assessment tool for youth mental health services integration. This review does not require ethics approval.