The Medical journal of Australia
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Worldwide, young people are increasingly engaged in participation and decision-making initiatives regarding issues that affect their lives through advisory groups, representative councils, advocacy and activism. Emerging evidence suggests that these initiatives may have an impact on the mental health and wellbeing of the youth involved. These guidelines, which are based on a scoping review of global evidence and led by a youth advisory group with lived experience of participation initiatives, summarise evidence-based recommendations for designing and implementing youth participation initiatives that protect the mental health and wellbeing of the young people involved. Development of these guidelines followed methods outlined by the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument and the strength of the evidence behind each recommendation was aligned with the National Health and Medical Research Council Levels of Evidence and recommendation grading system. ⋯ These guidelines are expected to provide cross-sectoral, global groups with the confidence to design and implement youth participation initiatives, using the best-available evidence, in ways that safeguard the mental health of the participating young people.
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To investigate the number of mental health-related hospitalisations of adolescents (12-17 years) in South Australia by level of contact with the child protection system (0-11 years). ⋯ About 45% of mental health-related hospitalisations of 12-17-year-old adolescents were of people who had had contact with child protection services by the age of 11 years, although only 15.5% of all adolescents had histories of child protection contact. The trauma associated with a history of child protection can have longer term sequelae, and this should be considered when adolescents are hospitalised with mental health conditions.
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This consensus statement recommends eight high-level trackable policy actions most likely to significantly improve health and wellbeing for children and young people by 2030. These policy actions include an overarching policy action and span seven interconnected domains that need to be adequately resourced for every young person to thrive: Material basics; Valued, loved and safe; Positive sense of identity and culture; Learning and employment pathways; Healthy; Participating; and Environments and sustainable futures. ⋯ Together, these achievable evidence-based policies would significantly improve children and young people's health and wellbeing by 2030, build a strong foundation for future generations, and provide co-benefits for all generations and society.