A Scoping Review of Interventions Designed to Increase Behavioural Health Service Engagement

A documented underutilization of behavioural health interventions with known efficacy for treating psychological disorders exists. Thus, engagement enhancement approaches (EEAs) exist to help increase individuals' use of behavioural health interventions. EEAs target a range of barriers to treatment; therefore, a wide variety of approaches exist.

To better understand what EEA approaches exist and in which contexts they are most widely implemented, this study conducted a scoping review of existing EEAs to increase treatment engagement in effective interventions for behavioural health disorders. Specifically, the purpose of this review was to characterize EEAs by type, modality, target population, and to examine the intersection of these categories. Additionally, this review examined research rigour and cultural considerations among existing EEAs.

We found that most of the identified studies targeted individual-level barriers through psychoeducation and awareness campaigns. These primarily focused on adults with substance use disorders or major depressive disorder and occurred in person at a provider location. This review identified several limitations and gaps in the literature regarding EEAs, such a shortage of scientifically rigorous studies that assess these approaches, the lack of cultural adaptations made to EEAs to specifically support minoritized individuals, the narrow focus of targeting individual-level barriers, and the limited scope of target groups.

This review offers clinicians and behavioural health researchers information regarding the selection of approaches to increase engagement in accessing behavioural health interventions, as well as suggestions for future research to address disparities and develop solutions to the systemic barriers of the EEAs.