Exploring youth's mental health and addiction service experiences and preferences through participatory action research

Youth with vulnerabilities, diverse identities, and backgrounds experience greater barriers to mental health and addiction (MHA) care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the MHA services that were available, and how they were delivered, changed significantly. These changes helped to bridge service access for some youth, but widened the gap for others, all while raising new service possibilities and preferences. Therefore, our objectives were to update our understanding of youth’s awareness of and access to MHA services before and since the pandemic, and how these varied on dimensions of equity and diversity.