Innovative youth mental health service model cuts costs and improves care

An innovative youth mental health service model can improve care and ease pressure on Canada's health-care system, a new study led by researchers at McGill University and the Douglas Research Centre demonstrates.

Published in The Lancet Psychiatry, the study focused on ACCESS Open Minds, a pan-Canadian youth mental health program that shifts care from hospitals and other institutional settings into community-based services. The program saved the public health-care system an average of $4,355 per patient annually, or nearly $10 for every dollar invested.

Researchers compared nearly 1,500 young people receiving care through ACCESS Open Minds in Edmonton with more than 9,000 similar youth receiving traditional mental health services. They tracked the types of care both groups used, and the associated costs, in the year before and after ACCESS Open Minds was launched.

Young people referred to ACCESS Open Minds often faced more serious mental health challenges and were more likely than members of the other group to have visited hospitals, emergency departments or live-in treatment programs before entering the program. Despite these greater needs, they relied less on those services after receiving care than the youth receiving traditional care.

The findings come as some youth mental health services are paradoxically narrowing their focus to young people with milder symptoms, the authors note.

"Our study shows public benefits depend on making sure that these services remain accessible to young people with the greatest needs," said lead author Dr. Jai Shah, Professor in McGill University's Department of Psychiatry and researcher at the Douglas Research Centre. "You can only save money if you're providing care to the people the health-care system was already spending money on in the first place."

As governments grapple with rising health-care costs, Shah says the findings offer valuable evidence on where future investments could have the greatest impact. The research team is now expanding the analysis to other ACCESS Open Minds sites, including those serving smaller communities and Indigenous populations across Canada.