Abstract
Young people experience high rates of mental health issues. However, many do not seek professional help. In order to encourage help-seeking behavior among young people, it is important to ensure that services are youth-friendly. This study aims to evaluate the Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT)’s mental health assessment service model using the World Health Organization (WHO) youth-friendly health service framework of accessibility, acceptability, and appropriateness (AAA), and to ascertain the extent to which the CHAT service model is youth-friendly. Three hundred young people aged 16–30 years, who had gone through CHAT mental health assessments, completed a 27-item questionnaire. Majority rated the items in the questionnaire favorably. Our results suggest that majority of the young people who accessed CHAT mental health assessment service found it to be youth-friendly.
Highlights
Adolescence and young adulthood are critical stages in the developmental lifespan where mental health issues are most prevalent
This paper aimed to evaluate the extent to which Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT) service is youth-friendly based on World Health Organization (WHO) AAA youth-friendly service framework by collecting quantitative data from young people who had accessed CHAT’s mental health assessment service
More than half of them were already aware that CHAT is a youth mental health service before making contact with CHAT (62.2%, 186/299), and most of them made first contact with CHAT online (42.5%, 127/299)
Summary
Adolescence and young adulthood are critical stages in the developmental lifespan where mental health issues are most prevalent. Research has shown that one out of every four to five young people in the general population will suffer from at least one mental disorder [1]. Despite the high prevalence of mental health issues in young people, professional help-seeking behaviour remains low. The same study found that those who had an earlier age of onset were less likely to have treatment contact. Some of the barriers to help-seeking identified were lack of mental health literacy, stigma to mental illness, concerns about confidentiality and trust, availability of resources (e.g., time and cost), lack of accessibility of Evaluating Singapore’s CHAT Assessment Service service (e.g., opening hours and location), and concerns about the characteristics of the provider (e.g., being judgmental) [4]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
