Lily PolenchukDr. Adam Abba-Aji, clinical professor at the University of Alberta department of psychiatry, psychiatrist at the Young Adult Community Outpatient Program, and Facility Medical Director at the Alberta Hospital Edmonton, is working to increase Canadian youth’s access to mental health services through the ACCESS Open Minds program.
ACCESS Open Minds is a national project supported through the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) grant. Dr. Abba-Aji described the program’s philosophy as “if you are stressed, you’re welcome to come in.”
“It’s a destigmatizing environment,” he said.
According to Mental Health Research Canada, 1.25 million youth in Canada need mental health support every year. However, more than half of them aren’t receiving it. According to Dr. Abba-Aji, this is because “youth have a high threshold [for] help-seeking behaviour” and mental health programs have been systemically embedded into adult communities, while 75 per cent of mental health disorders begin between the ages of 11-25.
From stigma to support
Since 2016, the ACCESS Open Minds program has increased mental health access for youth by following its five pillars: early identification, rapid access, age-appropriate care, no age-based transition, and engagement of youth and families during care.
“They are not only disadvantaged, but they’re also at the point where they have the highest risk of [developing] mental disorders,” Dr. Abba-Aji said.
Through these five pillars, youth can seek help before receiving a formal diagnosis, be put on a fast-track access to mental health programs, have services tailored to them, receive continuation of care beyond the age of 18, and access care that was created with people like them in collaboration.
The philosophy is “that every door they came into is the right door. So, we don’t turn them back, even if they came with something that doesn’t look [like a] mental health [matter],” Dr. Abba-Aji said.
“We make them feel welcome, and they would not know, behind the curtains, we do our work to ensure that we seemingly transfer them to the appropriate care they deserve.”
The project is based and tested on three hypotheses: the number of youth referred would increase over three years, more youth would be referred for an evaluation within 72 hours of their initial call, and more youth would receive care within 30 days of their first appointment compared to the months-long wait time before ACCESS Open Minds.
These hypotheses have been proven true since 2016, with 10 per cent increase in referrals around every six months, evaluation within 72 hours improved from 48 per cent to 89 per cent, and 85–89 per cent received care within 30 days.
Increasing the accessibility of youth mental health services
ACCESS Open Minds also co-designs its programs and clinics with youth, along with medical professionals with first-hand experience in an area local to where ACCESS Open Minds is implemented. Dr. Abba-Aji said this is done to foster trust and engagement with the youth that they work with.
Youth with more moderate to severe mental health disorders have about an 11 per cent longer wait time to access care due to a lack of specialized services, according to Dr. Abba-Aji. He said that this wait time is something his team “can improve on.”
Dr. Abba-Aji emphasized the importance of raising awareness of youth mental health.
“The community [of youth] with lived experience had taken an interest to learn more about the program,” he said. “It provided an increase in awareness of this program and allowed people to go and find where we are located and to come and seek help.”
Dr. Abba-Aji also indicated that as more resources are made available, the mortality rate of mental health concerns will be reduced.
“If 75 per cent of [mental disorders emerge] from this age of youth … then if we invest resources into that age group, we are likely to see the result that would reduce both mortality and morbidity and improve the care that we provide for these young adults.”
Continuous data collection helps to refine the program’s services, with the ACCESS Open Minds model being implemented through programs like Kickstand at the U of A Student Counselling Centre and the rebranded Recovery Alberta by Alberta Health Services.
