Indigenous youth in Northwestern Ontario who need mental health supports experience
longer waits than non-Indigenous youth within the region and when compared to youth in
other more urban areas. Limited access and extended waits can exacerbate symptoms,
prolong distress, increase risk for more serious outcomes like suicide, self-harm, and
hospitalization, and negatively impact engagement in treatment once it is offered.
Transitional aged youth (i.e., those in their mid-late teens to early twenties) are a
particularly vulnerable group as they are navigating many developmental challenges (e.g.,
identity, relationships, schooling, housing) with the loss of supports and structures
that may have been in place during childhood and adolescence. Transitional aged youth in
underserviced areas such as Northwestern Ontario have increased need for and decreased
access to mental health treatment, especially those in rural and remote areas. Novel,
innovative approaches are urgently needed to provide support for Indigenous youth in
Northwestern Ontario.
In partnership with Dilico Anishinabek Family Care, the investigators are evaluating the
impact of a mental health app (JoyPop) as a tool for Indigenous transitional-aged youth
who are waiting for mental health services. The JoyPop app was developed to support
improved emotion regulation - a key difficulty for youth presenting with mental health
challenges. Despite the promise of mobile mental health apps, significant gaps exist
between the growing number of apps available in the public domain and empirical
demonstration of the beneficial impacts of apps for users. Of the apps that address
emotion regulation, most have not been evaluated, are narrow in scope, or have only been
evaluated among non-diverse adult populations. The JoyPop app includes a broader focus,
and this research is unique given its focus on rigorously evaluating the JoyPop app as a
tool for treatment-seeking, Indigenous transitional-aged youth in Northwestern Ontario.
Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, the primary objective is to determine
the effectiveness of the JoyPop app in improving emotion regulation among Indigenous
transitional-aged youth (18-25) who are waiting for mental health services as compared to
usual practice (UP; monitoring those on the wait-list). The secondary objectives are to:
(1) Assess change in mental health difficulties and treatment readiness between youth in
each condition to better understand the app's broader impact as a wait-list tool; (2)
Conduct an economic analysis to determine whether receiving the app while waiting for
mental health services reduces other health service use and associated costs; (3) Define
the Minimal Clinically Important Difference (MCID) for the primary outcome measure; and
(4) Assess youth perspective the quality of the JoyPop app.
