From innovation to integration: what German mental health professionals think about peer-led youth discovery colleges

Mental health challenges among children and adolescents are increasing in Germany, highlighting the need for innovative, recovery-oriented approaches that complement existing mental health services. Discovery Colleges (DCs), a youth adaptation of the Recovery College model, are co-produced educational programmes that promote mental health literacy, empowerment, and collaborative learning through partnerships between professionals and individuals with lived experience. Although Discovery Colleges have been established internationally, little is known about their implementation potential within the German child and adolescent mental health system. This study therefore explored German mental health professionals' awareness, perceptions, and support for implementing the Discovery College model. A convergent mixed-methods cross-sectional online survey was conducted among mental health professionals working with children and adolescents in Germany. The study included 133 mental health professionals. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while qualitative responses to voluntary open-ended questions were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings were integrated to examine convergence, complementarity, and qualification across the quantitative and qualitative components. Only 24.1% of participants reported prior familiarity with Discovery Colleges. Following a standardised description of the model, 70.0% expressed support for establishing a Discovery College locally. Participants rated the model as highly relevant (M = 4.79, SD = 1.21), whereas the perceived likelihood of implementation was more cautious (M = 2.95, SD = 0.98). Perceived relevance significantly predicted implementation support (r = .353, p < .001). Qualitative findings contextualised these favourable evaluations by highlighting early support, empowerment, lived experience, and collaborative learning, and converged with quantitative findings regarding mental health literacy. They also qualified implementation support by identifying organisational integration, safeguarding, quality, and equitable access as important implementation conditions. Despite limited prior awareness, German mental health professionals generally perceived Discovery Colleges as relevant and supported their implementation. These findings support further context-sensitive pilot implementation and evaluation, with attention to professional awareness, cross-sector collaboration, safeguarding, equitable access, and organisational integration.