Contextual factors predicting feasibility and impact of preventive mental health interventions across Canada

The PreVenture Program involves providing youth with brief cognitive-behavioural interventions in youth-oriented settings and has proven remarkably effective in reducing and preventing alcohol and illicit drug use and mental health symptoms by 30-80% among high-risk secondary students in multiple published randomised trials. Through these trials, PreVenture training capacity is in place in multiple youth-focused settings across the country, including middle and high schools, university campuses, community youth mental health teams, child welfare and Indigenous led settings. Digital tools have been developed to support training and supervision of practitioners, as well as screening, quality control and outcome evaluation. Over 400 North American practitioners have been trained to deliver Preventure in their settings, and remain engaged in an interactive community of practice focusing on preventive mental health. The applicants are uniquely positioned to evaluate implementation standards in preventive mental health. The findings will directly inform how future practitioners are trained and how the program is best rolled out in diverse communities across Canada. Study Aims: This study will evaluate uptake, quality, acceptability, and short-term impact of Preventure when delivered to youth across Canada through a variety of settings in both digital and in-person formats. The intervention maintains many of its essential components across settings (group-based, peer-interactions, facilitator-guided discussions, structured personality-targeted cognitive-behavioural exercises), and is provided by trained facilitators to youth. Settings vary on degree of cultural adaptation, intensity and quality of training protocol, type of youth population served, geographic location, discipline or qualification of facilitators. Available implementation and outcome evaluation databases will be used to study factors that lead to greater uptake, acceptability and impact.