Nurses Leading the Way: Intersectoral Collaboration and Best Practices in Youth Engagement

Ontario public health units face challenges in developing affordable yet effective collaborative approaches to youth mental health promotion amongst key intersectoral stakeholders in the health, education and youth social service sectors. To enhance the capacity of public health units in implementing youth mental health promotion programs, the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) and partnering public health units, School Mental Health ASSIST and provincial youth based organizations across Ontario developed a Youth Mental Health and Addiction Champion (YMHAC) Initiative Tool-Kit. This Tool-Kit supports the dissemination and integration of evidence-based practices in mental health promotion and substance misuse prevention.

The YMHAC Tool-Kit is based on a successful peer led, intersectoral initiative that engaged health, education, community partners and youth in developing mentally healthy, resilient, safe and inclusive school communities through the development of youth leaders. Youth engagement principles were used to train youth as mental health Champions. These Champions learned strategies to increase awareness about mental health promotion and stigma reduction to foster supportive, resilient and inclusive school environments.

Due to an overwhelming response from public health units and the education system to expand the YMHAC initiative, the RNAO in collaboration with partners, developed the YMHAC Tool-Kit to support Public Health Nurses (PHNs) and others to implement evidence-based youth led mental health promotion initiatives in school settings. This presentation will reinforce the leadership role of PHNs in supporting youth mental health promotion outcomes in school communities. PHNs are ideally situated to engage in mental health promotion due to their nursing knowledge and expertise in utilizing youth engagement principles and leveraging existing inter-sectoral partnerships with school boards. The presentation will highlight the best practices in knowledge translation and implementation science utilized to develop the Tool-Kit, and explore the advantages and benefits of using the YMHAC Tool-Kit to support locally driven youth mental health promotion initiatives.