Factors that sustain Indigenous youth mentoring programs: a qualitative systematic review protocol

This qualitative systematic review aims to identify the barriers and enablers to delivering and sustaining Indigenous youth mentoring programs for improving mental health and reducing suicide rates.

The United Nations has called for global action to address Indigenous youth suicide and suicidal behavior. Indigenous youth mentoring programs aimed at improving mental health and reducing suicide rates have been conducted at smaller scales at other sites. Mentoring is culturally appropriate as it empowers communities and aligns with the principles of community, teaching and learning, kinship, and holistic health. There is a gap in the understanding of what the barriers and enablers of mentoring are in addressing Indigenous youth mental health and, ultimately, Indigenous youth suicide.

This review will consider studies that include mentoring programs specifically targeted at Indigenous youth mental health and well-being that are based within a community or organization setting.

Databases to be searched include CINAHL, PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Embase, as well as grey literature within Trove, OpenGrey, Indigenous HealthInfoNet, and Informit Indigenous Collection. The search will be limited to articles written in English and published from 2007 to the present. Titles and abstracts will be screened by two independent reviewers; full-text studies will be retrieved and assessed against the inclusion criteria. Results will be recorded in a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) diagram. Where possible, qualitative research findings will be pooled. Where textual pooling is not possible, the findings will be presented in narrative form.