Facilitating access to effective and appropriate care for youth with mild to moderate mental health concerns in new zealand.

PROBLEM: Youth with mild-moderate mental health concerns often go unrecognized, and find access to and the navigation of support services difficult. METHODS: A quasi-experimental pre-/postintervention design was used to explore the impact of facilitated access to free counseling support using the following outcome measures: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Substance Abuse Choices Scale (SACS), Children's Global Assessment Scale (C-GAS), alongside consumer feedback questionnaires. FINDINGS: A total of 581 culturally diverse youth aged 10-24 completed the intervention. Those who completed reported significant improvements in global social and psychiatric functioning measured by C-GAS (p < .001); reduced risk of clinically significant mental health concerns measured by SDQ (p < .001); and reductions in the use and impact of drugs/alcohol measured by SACS (p < .001). Participants and their families/whanau reported that the interventions were safe and appropriate, with perceived increased skill development around coping and communication. CONCLUSIONS: This intervention appears to be an effective and acceptable strategy, particularly for Maori youth and those from lower socioeconomic groups, to reduce mild to moderate mental health symptoms and concerns. This approach could be replicated by other communities wishing to reduce mental health burden for youth by facilitating access to free, culturally appropriate, and accessible counseling via a multidisciplinary and collaborative triage approach.

Association between availability and quality of health services in schools and reproductive health outcomes among students: a multilevel observational study.

OBJECTIVES: We determined the association between availability and quality of school health services and reproductive health outcomes among sexually active students. METHODS: We used a 2-stage random sampling cluster design to collect nationally representative data from 9107 students from 96 New Zealand high schools. Students self-reported whether they were sexually active, how often they used condoms or contraception, and their involvement in pregnancy. School administrators completed questionnaires on their school-based health services, including doctor and nursing hours per week, team-based services, and health screening. We conducted analyses using multilevel models controlling for individual variables, with schools treated as random effects. RESULTS: There was an inverse association between hours of nursing and doctor time and pregnancy involvement among sexually active students, with fewer pregnancies among students in schools with more than 10 hours of nursing and doctor time per 100 students. There was no association between doctor visits, team-based services, health screening, and reproductive health outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: School health services are associated with fewer pregnancies among students, but only when the availability of doctor and nursing time exceeds 10 hours per 100 students per week.