By Youth, For Youth: Digital Supported Peer Navigation for Addressing Child Mental Health Care

Despite significant progress in research, practice, and policy over the past few decades, many children and youth continue to experience poor mental health outcomes. With their unrivaled ability to reach youth, school-based services and primary care are ideal hubs to provide mental health, healthcare, social services, and prevention to youth and families who otherwise face barriers to care. Using Participatory Design and Community Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR) for app development, mobile technology is designed to optimize access to wellness resources. The proposed intervention is a model of care using technology and navigators for connecting youth ages 13-22 to mental health care and supports. The app is co-created with the community and supported by culturally responsive individuals called family and youth navigators, in schools and primary care clinics. Outcomes are measured using the cascade of care model.

NCT Number	NCT06122688
Lead Sponsor	University of California, Riverside Collaborators: University of California, San Francisco, University of California, Los Angeles, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Conditions	Anxiety, Depression, Mental Health Issue
Enrollment	8,360 participants
Start Date	2026-07-01
Primary Completion	2029-06-30 (estimated)
Study Completion	2029-06-30 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-01-28