Better Access to and Integration of Mental Health and Addiction Services Through Navigation: A Mixed-Methods Adaptive Pragmatic Clinical Trial

Starting soon · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Mental Health, Addictions, Patient Navigation, Health Services

In brief

The Family Navigation Project (FNP), a youth and family mental health and addictions (MHA) navigation service that currently operates in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), is expanding to northern Ontario by setting up a new site in the Sudbury and Manitoulin districts. This work is being done in partnership with Compass/Boussole/Akii-Izhinoogan, the lead child and youth mental health agency for Sudbury-Manitoulin. An innovative clinical trial will be conducted following the setup of FNP in Sudbury-Manitoulin, which will test how well the model works for the community in this area. The team will collect information about the experiences and outcomes of the youth and families who use the service. The goal is to see whether FNP leads to better outcomes for youth and families, such as getting help sooner, feeling more supported, and being able to use the healthcare system more efficiently. The trial will use a mixed methods approach, meaning it gathers both numbers (e.g., wait times and service use) and personal experiences (e.g., whether families feel supported). This will provide a rich, in-depth picture of how navigation services work in a northern community and how they impact the lives of young people and their families living there.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT07707492

Run by

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

People needed

480

Starts

2026-10-01

Expected to finish

2029-10-01

Last updated by the study team

2026-07-16

Who can join

Age: 11 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Individuals who meet the established eligibility criteria for the Family Navigation Project (FNP), specifically:
• Youth ages 11 to 29 years old who are experiencing a mental health and/or addictions (MHA) concern OR
• Family members or caregivers (broadly defined, including family of choice) of youth ages 11 to 29 years old who are experiencing a MHA concern.
• No maximum age limit for participants who are the family of a youth experiencing a MHA concern, as long as the youth is within the eligible age range.
• The youth experiencing a MHA concern OR the family member must reside within the districts of Sudbury, Greater Sudbury, or Manitoulin to be eligible for inclusion.
• Participants must enroll in the clinical trial within the two-month period following the date of their intake with FNP Sudbury-Manitoulin.

You may not qualify if…

• Individuals will be excluded if they fall outside of the eligible age range for the Family Navigation Project (i.e., younger than 11, older than 29) or if they are not experiencing a mental health and/or addictions concern.
• Participants will also be excluded if the youth with MHA concerns or the family member do not reside within the designated catchment area of Sudbury, Greater Sudbury, or Manitoulin.
• Individuals older than 29 may only be included if they are participating in this study as a family member of an eligible youth (aged 11-29) who is experiencing a MHA concern.

Where it is running

• Laurentian University — Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
• Sunnybrook Research Institute — Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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