Achieving Quality Integrated Care for Adolescent Depression: A Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Adolescent Medicine
• Mental Health Services Research

Background:

• Primary care settings are crucial for identifying adolescent depression, yet over half of cases remain untreated or undertreated.
• Improving access to quality mental health services for adolescents within primary care is a significant public health challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review summarizing approaches for delivering quality integrated care for adolescent depression in primary care.
• To identify multilevel strategies supporting integrated care delivery across different stakeholder levels.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review following the Arksey and O'Malley methodological framework.
• Articles were categorized by stakeholder level (patient/family, primary care team, health system) and mapped to integrated care quality domains.

Main Results:

• 22 articles were included, focusing on patient/family, primary care team, and national/sub-national health system levels.
• Key strategies included population-focused approaches (screening, registries), team-driven collaboration, evidence-based service delivery, and measurement-guided improvements using EHRs.

Conclusions:

• Multilevel, integrated approaches are essential for quality adolescent depression care in primary settings.
• Further research on patient engagement, retention, and national guidelines is needed.
• A learning system could standardize integrated mental health service delivery.