What do justice-involved youth want from integrated youth services? A conjoint analysis.

Background: Many youth in the criminal justice system are affected by mental health and/or substance use (MHS) challenges, yet only a minority receive treatment. One way to increase access to MHS care is integrated youth services (IYS), a community-based model of service delivery where youth can access evidence-based treatment for their MHS problems and other wellbeing needs, in one location. However, it is unknown what IYS services justice-involved youth prioritize.

Objective: This study explored what components of IYS justice-involved youth deem to be the most important in meeting their MHS service needs, in comparison with non-justice-involved youth, by conducting a secondary analysis of data gathered from a larger Ontario-wide study.

Method: Using a conjoint analysis, n = 55 justice-involved youth, and n = 188 non-justice-involved youth, completed thirteen choice tasks representing different combinations of IYS.

Results: Both justice-involved and non-justice-involved youth exhibited preferences for a broad range of core health services, including mental health services, substance misuse counseling, medication management, and physical or sexual health services. They also preferred a broad range of additional support services, in addition to fast access to care in a community setting that specializes in mental health services, with the incorporation of e-health services. Justice-involved youth prioritized working with a trained peer support worker to learn life skills and help them with the services they need. The importance of youth playing a leadership role in making decisions within IYS organizations was also a distinguishing preference among justice-involved youth.

Conclusions: Tailoring IYS to meet the service preferences of justice-involved youth may enhance service utilization, potentially leading to better outcomes for justice-involved youth and their communities.