NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: South Slave Region

Tags: health, social sciences, health care

Objective(s): To assess the Health Café which offers a youth-focused option for adolescents accessing health, support, and mental health care.

Project Description: The Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority - Fort Smith Region offers a youth-focused option for adolescents accessing health and mental health care, support, and services called The Health Café, located in a less intimidating, more comfortable environment - at the local high school. It is hoped that studying the evolution of The Health Café through the perspective of the providers will: •identify historical sources of success; •identify new opportunities and partnerships; •increase program effectiveness; •assist the organization to align resources to identified needs; •assist the organization to overcome barriers to service provision; •generate ideas for change; and, •create renewed energy within the provider team. The ultimate goal of this research inquiry is to improve client-focused care for youth. Achieving these goals will be guided by the following research questions and sub-questions: How might the evolution of The Health Café improve the provision of school-based health services for youth: 1. Who is currently accessing The Health Café and what is the current service level? 2. What barriers exist to service provision? 3. What new strategies/partnerships will enhance/supplement the services of The Health Café? 4. How might NTHSSA ensure services align with the needs of the youth? Two phases of data collection are planned for this action research inquiry. Multiple methods have been selected and sequenced deliberately to first assess individual experiences and subsequently follow up with group opinion, discussion, and interaction about the research inquiry topic. The first phase of data collection chosen is personal, semi-structured interviews. This method has been selected to accommodate a relatively small number of potential participants and to provide a confidential, one-on-one interaction to explore individual perspectives on experiences, clarity of vision, and potential for evolution for the services of The Health Café. It is proposed these interviews will about an hour in length and be face-to-face in a location selected by the interviewee. Interviews will be audio recorded and consent to do so is included in the consent form. A minimum of two participants and a maximum of four participants will be acceptable for this action research inquiry. Potential participants include two supervisors and two directors. As the first method of data collection, these interviews will inform the present reality discussion of the focus group – the proposed second method of data collection. The second phase of data collection chosen is focus groups. Estimated to be about three hours in length. A semi-structured focus group is a strategic option selected to focus on strengths and engage in dialogue with the team with a goal of proposing partnerships and strategies to evolve the services of The Health Café for the benefit of clients. A minimum of three participants and a maximum of nine participants will be acceptable for this action research inquiry. The focus group will potentially include six current staff members who provide direct care in the Public Health department, Community Counseling department and the Primary Care Clinic, two supervisors and one past coordinator of The Health Café. The focus group will be audio recorded and consent to do so is included in the consent form. An information letter will be emailed as an invitation to each participant. This process will be the same for both data collection methods. All potential participants will be informed in the information letter and the letter of invitation that their participation is voluntary and they have the right to withdraw without penalty. Once agreeing to participate in data collection, participants will be informed at the beginning of each data collection method their participation is voluntary, they have the right to withdraw at any point without penalty, as well as any specific details about the process of withdrawing including details pertaining to the removal of personal data contributions. In addition to submitting a final report to Royal Roads University in partial fulfillment for a Master of Arts in Leadership - Health, The Principal Investigator will also be sharing the research findings with the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Leadership of the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority - Fort Smith Region. In order to promote the work of students, Royal Roads University may post the executive summary of this report on their School of Leadership Studies website. Finally, in keeping with Aurora Research Institutes’ (ARI) Territorial research license regulations, a copy of the final report will be submitted to the ARI research library. No raw data directly identifiable to any individual will be shared – only conclusions based on themes discovered during data collection. The report will be disseminated in hard and electronic copy. A copy of the final report will be issued to any participant who submits a request by e-mail at natalie.1campbell@royalroads.ca. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from April 19, 2017 to September 17, 2017.