Foundry, the British Columbia Integrated Youth Services Initiative: Sharing Lessons From a Decade of Innovation

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Services Research
• Adolescent Health

Background:

• Canadian youth face significant mental health and substance use challenges.
• Integrated Youth Services (IYS) have emerged as a supported model to address these needs.
• The British Columbia (BC) IYS initiative, Foundry, is nearing its 10-year mark.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the development and impact of Foundry, a key IYS initiative in BC.
• To extract lessons for other jurisdictions developing IYS.
• To highlight the role of policy in advancing IYS and discuss future directions.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of Foundry's development and service delivery.
• Case study of a provincial IYS initiative.
• Policy analysis related to IYS implementation.

Main Results:

• Foundry has served 47,000 unique youth with over 320,000 visits since 2018.
• The initiative operates 17 physical centres and a provincial virtual service, with more centres in development.
• Foundry is demonstrably filling a critical gap in youth mental health and substance use services in BC.

Conclusions:

• Integrated Youth Services are effective in addressing youth mental health and substance use issues.
• Foundry's model provides a scalable framework for other Canadian provinces.
• Policy support is crucial for the successful expansion and sustainability of IYS.