Enhancing Collaborative Treatment Planning with Young People in Mental Health Settings: A Narrative Scoping Review

Abstract

Background: Despite the growing recognition of recovery oriented principles as the preferred way of working with children and young people in a mental health context, translating these principles to practice remains unclear. For mental health clinicians, collaborative treatment planning with young people who experience significant mental health difficulties is complex.

Objective: To identify clinical practices to enhance the participation of young people in mental health treatment planning.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted, using narrative summaries. From 1172 articles identified in a database search and evaluated against inclusion criteria, 22 were included for review. Basic thematic analysis was used to identify key themes from the literature.

Results: The studies reviewed suggested that participatory treatment planning leads to improved processes and outcomes for the young person, the clinician and services. Clinical practices that may enable participation in treatment planning included relational engagement, contracting, therapeutic strategies, strength-based treatment planning and working systematically. A number of consumer, contextual and service delivery factors were also identified which constrain such participation.

Discussion: The categorised findings, ranked according to prominence, provide a useful framework to enable practitioners to maximise the participation of young people in treatment planning. While the findings should be considered as preliminary, due to limitations of studies and methodology, they provide a useful starting point for future studies.