Abstract
High rates of highly persistent mental health problems can have significantly damaging effects on young adults’ lives, and young adults are less likely to seek treatment for such problems. This article describes a unique Canadian knowledge translation project called Mobilizing Minds: Pathways to Young Adult Mental Health, which aimed to impact not only the mental health literacy of young adults, but to engage young adults in the entire research process from inception to dissemination of results. Knowledge translation is a process that involves producing and assessing the quality of the knowledge to be translated and tailoring the knowledge to be user friendly for particular segments of the population. The article gives particular attention to the ways in which the Mobilizing Minds project was influenced by youth engagement. We discuss three aspects: 1) structures, processes and communication; 2) project products; and 3) challenges and responses. Lessons learned specific to intergenerational collaboration will be of interest to youth as consumers of mental health information and services, mental health practitioners, researchers, and decision-makers seeking to improve mental health at a systemic level.Keywords: knowledge translation, young adult, mental health, participatory research, youth engagement, youth-adult partnerships
Highlights
This article describes a novel Canadian research project that combined knowledge translation (KT) and youth engagement (YE) processes to develop mental health resources for and with young adults aged 18–25
Mobilizing Minds sought to: 1) develop, evaluate and disseminate evidence-based mental health information and resources that would meet the needs of young adults aged 18–25 and assist them in making informed decisions about their mental health and mental health treatment options; and 2) build connections among researchers, decision-makers, young adults and community organisations that serve young adults to foster information sharing, collaboration and mobilisation of young adult mental health information and resources
Through the YA team’s work, partners (YAs and facilitators) developed in multiple ways: 1) they gained knowledge about young adult preferences for receiving mental health information; 2) they developed transferable skills as they co-presented at national conferences; 3) they were involved in the collaborative development of resources across distances and over time, and partnered with new media specialists; and 4) they gained experience working with an information scientist on the usability of the Mind Pack tool
Summary
This article describes a novel Canadian research project that combined knowledge translation (KT) and youth engagement (YE) processes to develop mental health resources for and with young adults aged 18–25. Through the YA team’s work, partners (YAs and facilitators) developed in multiple ways: 1) they gained knowledge about young adult preferences for receiving mental health information (i.e. the research findings in year two); 2) they developed transferable skills as they co-presented at national conferences (e.g. the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Mental Health Commission of Canada); 3) they were involved in the collaborative development of resources across distances and over time, and partnered with new media specialists; and 4) they gained experience working with an information scientist on the usability of the Mind Pack tool.
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