Integrated youth hubs – a success story that is being missed in the UK
3-minute read
What are Integrated Youth Services (IYS)?
Integrated Youth Services specialise in delivering youth-focused mental health supports that are integrated into multiple care pathways. They aim to provide fast access to evidence-based, innovative mental health services that incorporate in-person, virtual and outreach care. They also seek to delay the transition to adult services by extending this youth care to young adults (the age range is typically 12 – 25 years old).
The origins of IYS
When Australia launched Headspace, the global mental health community looked on in anticipation. The initial response to the concept was ‘How fantastic that the Australian government recognised the huge need for mental health supports for young people! But will this idea actually work?’
The data was clear, 31% of young people attending Headspace centres were rated as ‘reliably improved’[1] between their first and last recorded assessments.
As positive results started to emerge from Australia, other countries stepped up and took the lessons learned there and adapted a model for their own country. Ireland created Jigsaw; New Zealand created Youth One Stop Shops; and Canada created integrated youth hubs.
In the past few years, following the implementation of a nationwide youth policy, Canada has invested even more into their integrated youth hubs (physical and/or virtual spaces to access services), with the provinces of British Columbia, and New Brunswick leading the implementation and scaling-up of the hub approach.
Key highlights of the model in Canada are:
No referral necessary
Trauma-informed, youth-friendly physical spaces
In-person or virtual support
Multi-disciplinary teams and sectors working together
Integrated and collaborative clinical support
Rapid access (within 72 hours) to a non-diagnosis focused assessment
Highly-trained Peer Support Workers supporting Children and Young People (CYP) to develop their own coping and life skills, supporting CYP to build wider community connections and move on when ready.
A way of meeting an increasing need
The number of children and young people reaching out for mental health support continues to increase year-on-year. Mental health issues amongst young people are often undiagnosed and untreated; half of all people with poor mental health state that issues start by age 14 and three quarters of people by age 24.[2]
Adoption in the UK
In the UK, we have been slow to adopt this new model. Yes, by no means is the model perfect yet, but it does make sense. Community-based support for children and young people, integrated clinical care, co-production at its core, faster access to support when needed, and joined up care are all possible under this model.
Creating system-level change is not easy, but when the right players are in the room and there’s collective willpower, great things can be achieved. This has been proven recently with one NHS trust we are currently working with. Covid-19 led one CYP service to work together with multiple teams to try to ensure that no child fell between the cracks and had access to rapid mental health supports. We helped them to develop an integrated early intervention model for the ever-growing list of children and young people not eligible for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Although a single point of access has yet to be developed, there now exists a rapid process of escalating cases to a multi-disciplinary complex case meeting as needed to get ensure children are getting the right care.
And that’s why integrated youth hubs are proving popular in other countries. They are lauded for their ability to connect with young people sooner and divert between 15% and 30% of A&E admissions. These hubs have the ability to create real change for young people and their families.
Maybe we could do something similar here in the UK?
So many health systems could benefit
The NHS, along with similar western health authorities across the world, recognise that positive emotional wellbeing and good mental health is vital to help young people develop the resilience and skills to successfully transition to adult life. Many health authorities, NHS Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups identify a desire to shift towards proactive care, with greater use of community support and resources, to provide earlier and timelier support.
IYS can help to achieve these aims by reducing treatment waiting times, creating crisis and urgent care pathways, providing easier access to low-level early intervention support, and more timely assessments. An even bigger step would be to create a single point of access for children and their families as already created across a small number of trusts.
Want to learn more about the model and/or research for your service or local community?
Habitus has links to IYS sites across Canada and in conjunction with both the NHS and charitable partners in the UK, is looking to implement the model here.
If you would like to learn more about IYS and how it could meet the needs of the communities you serve, connect with us by clicking on the button below.
Habitus specialises in providing practical, engaging and lasting solutions to health.
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