Flip the clinic: a digital health approach to youth mental health service delivery

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED: Mental health service demand is projected to rapidly increase as a direct and indirect result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that young people are disproportionately disadvantaged by mental illness and will face further challenges from COVID-19, it is crucial that the appropriate mental health care be delivered to them as early as possible. Integrating digital health solutions into mental health service delivery pathways has the potential to greatly increase efficiencies, allowing for the provision of 'right care, first time'. We propose an innovative digital health solution for demand management intended for use by primary youth mental health services, comprised of: 1) a youth mental health model of care (i.e. BMC Youth Model); and 2) a health information technology specifically designed to deliver this model of care (e.g. the InnoWell Platform), as well as an operational protocol of how this solution could be applied to primary youth mental health service delivery processes. By 'flipping' conventional service delivery models of majority in-clinic and minority online-delivered care to a model where online-delivered care is the default, this digital health solution offers a scalable way of delivering quality youth mental health care, both in response to public health crises (such as COVID-19) and ongoingly into the future.