Deepening our knowledge on early intervention approaches for youth with bipolar disorder

Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario (YWHO)

“Our youth wellness hubs aren’t about delivering widgets of services,” says Dr. Jo Henderson, Executive Director of Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario. “They’re about bringing together a community who care for young people from all walks of life.”

As a one-stop shop for community and social programming, these hubs could be ideal settings for identifying and supporting youth with severe mental illnesses like bipolar disorder. To explore this further, YWHO is conducting a review to better understand ways that Integrated Youth Service Hubs could intervene early for young people with and at risk of bipolar disorder.

“We’ll be looking at the evidence on approaches that already exist, and we’ll be speaking with both youth and our service providers to understand their needs, what’s important to them, and what they think could be helpful,” says Jo.

Based on their findings, YWHO could help to prototype programmatic options within Integrated Youth Services not only in Ontario, but across Canada. “It’s amazing to see youth who walk through our doors at the most difficult time in their lives then go on to speak about what it’s been like to not only be supported by our hubs but co-design projects together to support more youth.”