Leveraging integrated youth services for social prescribing: a case study of Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario

Integrated youth services (IYS) presents a unique opportunity to adopt social prescribing (SP) strategies within the IYS service model by developing and leveraging a highly connected multidisciplinary network of clinical and community-based service providers to tackle health inequities and enhance service access and outcomes for youth. This paper outlines a case study of Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario (YWHO), Canada, a collective of youth-serving organizations integrated and networked, and operating as a learning health system implementing SP services. The main study objective was to document how YWHO hubs engage in social prescribing through service provision.

We adopted an embedded case study approach. Data were collected from youth (n = 6361) aged between 12 and 25 years who were seeking services at a YWHO hub. Descriptive analyses, including frequencies across categories, were generated from service data, including reason for visit, needs addressed and service provided.

A comparative analysis of services requested and provided found that youth across visits to YWHO hubs were engaging with multiple services and service providers, with a wide range of health, mental health and social support needs being addressed.

YWHO implements SP services that aim to improve mental health resilience by supporting the vocational, educational and socialization needs of young people accessing IYS through YWHO hubs.