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Health Care System / Public Policy

Behavioral Health Treatment Barriers for Transition-Aged Youth: Development of a Novel Patient-Reported Experience Measure

(PS5-D89) Behavioral Health Treatment Barriers for Transition-aged Youth: Development of a Novel Patient-reported Experience Measure

Friday, November 17, 2023
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM PST
Location: Regency Ballroom, Level 7
Timely linkage and successful engagement with mental health treatment is an important predictor of positive treatment outcomes across psychological disorders. Approximately half of all Americans will experience a psychological disorder sometime in their life, with most experiencing onset during adolescence and young adulthood, making these years critical targets for early intervention. However, treatment services may be disrupted or discontinued during the transition from youth to adult mental health service systems, which often lack targeted coordination services. The present project aims to identify and measure specific, targetable gaps and barriers that youth experience during this transition to design a novel patient-reported experience measure. First, as part of a larger landscape evaluation of behavioral health services available to Medicaid members, we surveyed 39 key stakeholders and conducted a comprehensive review of behavioral health facilities in the state. Preliminary results indicate gaps in providing targeted behavioral health services for transition-aged youth (i.e., 16–24-year-olds), with particular gaps noted for rural youth, young adults in need of youth-oriented case management, youth aging out of the public education system, and youth requiring higher-intensity substance use treatment. These results will be combined with a systematic literature review of barriers during transition currently underway to develop survey items that will be initially tested with a diverse sample of undergraduate students. Designing implementable outcome measures represents a first step in evaluating and reforming the behavioral health system to reduce barriers to successful engagement.