Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The surge in postsecondary students reporting mental health concerns, coupled with increased utilisation of on-campus and hospital-based mental healthcare, highlights a need to understand effective service navigation. To address this system gap, the University of Toronto and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) leveraged their unique expertise and resources to develop the University of Toronto Navigation (UTN) service. UTN introduces care navigators to facilitate postsecondary student transitions from acute mental health services to community or campus mental healthcare. There has been limited implementation and evaluation of navigator models specific to the postsecondary context to date, which hinders scalability. This paper describes the study protocol of Navigation to Enhance Post-Secondary Students' Acute Mental Health Care Transitions, a study that aims to collaborate with students, navigators and clinicians to evaluate the UTN service. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A one-stage, single-arm multimethods study design will be used to evaluate the UTN service. We will recruit 103 students following their UTN intake appointment. Students will complete quantitative measures assessing health outcomes, experiences of care and service utilisation at baseline and at three subsequent time points across a 6-month follow-up period. The quantitative data will be linked to administrative healthcare data. The primary evaluation outcome will be defined as attending an appointment with an appropriate care provider (in person or virtually) within 30 days of discharge from the hospital. We will conduct interviews with students and referring clinicians to gather perspectives regarding their experiences and satisfaction with the UTN service in greater depth. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Research ethics board approvals have been obtained from the University of Toronto and CAMH. Results will be disseminated through publications and presentations, and a toolkit will be cocreated to support implementation and adaptation of hospital-based navigator interventions in postsecondary contexts.