Mental health service accessibility for young people in rural, regional, and remote areas and its implications for social work practice: a scoping review protocol

Figures & data

Figure 1. PRISMA-ScR flow chart of scoping review source selection process.

Table 1. Database search terms.

Categories	Search terms
Mental Health	(“mental health” OR “mental health service*” OR “mental health support” OR “mental health care”) AND
People	(“youth *” OR “young people” OR “adolescen*” OR “teen*” OR “social work*” OR “mental health professional*” OR “professional*” OR “clinician*” OR “mental health clinician*”) AND
Accessibility	(“barrier*” OR “facilitate*” OR “access*”) AND
Areas	(“rural” OR “regional” OR “remote area*” OR “remote town*”) AND
Countries	(“Australia*” OR “Canad*)

Table 2. Characteristics of studies included in the findings.

Author (Year)	Target group	Location	Background of authors	Focus	Participants	Method(s)
Bowman et al. (2020)	Young people and service providers	Rural Australia	Psychology	How LGBT Young Adults in rural communities experience online mental health services	Young rural LGBT adults (n = 9) aged between 18 to 25 years Service providers (n = 6)	Qualitative semi-structured interviews
Bridgman et al. (2019)	Service providers	Rural Australia	Psychology Social Work	To assess the accessibility of an outreach youth mental health service in rural Tasmania	Rural mental health service organizations (n = 2)	Quantitative analysis of service data
Chandradasa & Basu (2020)	Service providers	Regional Australia	Psychiatry	To understand if collaboration between services improve accessibility and continuity of care for young people in a regional area	Service providers (n = 40) in a regional area	Online quantitative survey
Church et al. (2020)	Young people	Rural and regional Canada	Social Work	Understanding barriers in accessing youth mental health services in a rural and regional area	Adolescents aged between 15 to 20 years (n = 83) in a rural and regional area	Quantitative questionnaire
Clark et al. (2018a)	Young people	Regional Australia	Psychology	To investigate the attitude of adolescent males in regional areas toward computerized mental health intervention	Adolescent males aged between 12 to 18 years (n = 29) in regional areas	Qualitative focus groups Semi-structured interviews
Clark et al. (2018b)	Young people	Regional Australia	Psychology	To understand the attitudes of adolescent males in regional areas toward help-seeking for clinical anxiety	Adolescent aged between 12–18 years (n = 29) in regional areas	Qualitative focus groups Semi-structured interviews
Davenport et al. (2020)	Service providers	Rural, regional, and remote Australia	Psychology	A report on the implementation of InnoWell Platform at youth mental health services across the country	N/A	Case Study
Dolan et al. (2020)	Young people and service providers	Regional Australia	Psychology Nursing	To examine the facilitators and barriers accessing a regional youth mental health service.	Young people in a regional area (n = 7) aged between 15 to 20 Service providers in a regional area (n = 9)	Qualitative semi-structured interviews
Dubé et al. (2019)	Service providers	Rural Canada	Nursing Social Work Psychology	Implementation of the ACCESS Open Minds framework in a rural area	N/A	Case Study
Etter et al. (2019)	Service providers	Remote Canada	Nursing Psychiatry	Implementation of the ACCESS Open Minds framework in a remote area	N/A	Case Study
Fox et al. (2020)	Young people and service providers	Regional Australia	Psychology	The effectiveness of NewAccess in facilitating service access for young people in a regional area	Young people aged 12 to 25 (n = 5) from regional areas Parents/carers of the young participants (n = 2) Service providers in regional areas (n = 10)	Quantitative questionnaire Qualitative semi-structured interviews
Guy (2021)	Young people	Rural Canada	Nursing	To understand the lived experiences of youth in a rural setting with a self-defined mental health problem	Young people aged between 16 to 21(n=10) in a rural area	Qualitative semi-structured interviews
Hensel et al. (2019)	Service providers	Rural and remote Canada	Psychiatry Social Work	The utilization of tele-mental health service for Indigenous youth in rural and remote settings	N/A	Case study
Katapally (2020)	Service providers	Rural and remote Canada	Medicine	The implementation of Smart Indigenous Youth for youth living in rural and remote regions	Indigenous youth aged between 13 to 18 years (n = 76) from rural communities School principals (n = 2) from two rural schools	Quantitative ecological momentary assessments Qualitative focus groups
Libon et al. (2022)	Young people	Rural Canada	Nursing	Conceptualization of a peer-support model for youth in a rural community	Young people aged between 15 to 24 (n = 11) in a rural community	Qualitative co-design workshops
Litwin et al. (2022)	Young people and service providers	Remote Canada	Psychology	Assessing the effectiveness of SPARX in improving the mental wellbeing of Inuit youth living in a remote area	Inuit youth from a remote area (n = 13) aged between 13 to 18 Service providers in a remote area (n = 7)	Qualitative semi-structured interviews
Loughhead et al. (2018)	Young people	Regional Australia	Nursing Psychology	To understand from regional young people what characterizes youth-friendly services	Young people aged 12 to 25 (n = 32) across regional areas	Qualitative semi-structured group and individual interviews
Mathias et al. (2021)	Young people	Rural Canada	Nursing	To understand what barriers and facilitators to accessing mental health supports perceived by young women in a rural area	Young females (n = 7) aged between 16 to 18 in a rural area	Qualitative semi-structured interviews
Naughton et al. (2018)	Young people	Regional Australia	Social Work Psychiatry Psychology	To explore the effectiveness of the Choice and Partnership Approach (CAPA) within a regional child and adolescent mental health service	Children and youth (n = 110) in a regional area aged between 2 to 17 years	Quantitative clinical outcome measures
Povey et al. (2020)	Young people and service providers	Regional and rural Australia	Psychology Psychiatry Speech Pathology	To report on the developing stages of the AIMhi-Y App being co-designed with Aboriginal youth	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth (n = 45) aged between 10 to 18 years in regional and rural settings	Qualitative focus groups Quantitative online survey
Reaume-Zimmer et al. (2019)	Service providers	Rural Canada	Nursing Psychiatry	Implementation of the ACCESS Open Minds framework in a rural community	N/A	Case study
Rowe et al. (2020)	Service providers	Regional Australia	Psychology Nursing Psychiatry	Assessing the effectiveness of the Innowell Platform in allowing regional Headspace services to better engage youth	Service providers (n = 56) from regional areas	Qualitative service mapping workshops Qualitative co-design workshops Useability testing sessions

Bowman, S., Brona Nic Giolla, E., & Fox, R. (2020). Virtually caring: A qualitative study of internet-based mental health services for LGBT young adults in rural Australia. Rural and Remote Health, 20(1), 5443. https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH5448

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Bridgman, H., Ashby, M., Sargent, C., Marsh, P., & Barnett, T. (2019). Implementing an outreach headspace mental health service to increase access for disadvantaged and rural youth in Southern Tasmania. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 27(5), 444–447. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajr.12550

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Chandradasa, M., & Basu, S. (2020). Collaborative networking between regional child mental health, paediatric and educational services in Gippsland, Australia: An online survey. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 27(6), 571–573. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajr.12552

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Church, M., Ellenbogen, S., & Hudson, A. (2020). Perceived barriers to accessing mental health services for rural and small city Cape Breton youth. Social Work in Mental Health, 18(5), 554–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2020.1801553

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Clark, L. H., Hudson, L., Dunstan, D. A., & Clark, G. I. (2018a). Barriers and facilitating factors to help-seeking for symptoms of clinical anxiety in adolescent males. Australian Journal of Psychology, 70(3), 225–234. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12191

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Clark, L. H., Hudson, L., Dunstan, D. A., & Clark, G. I. (2018b). Capturing the attitudes of adolescent males’ towards computerised mental health help-seeking. Australian Psychologist, 53(5), 416–426. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12341

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Davenport, T. A., Cheng, V. W. S., Iorfino, F., Hamilton, B., Castaldi, E., Burton, A., Scott, E. M., & Hickie, I. B. (2020). Flip the clinic: A digital health approach to youth mental health service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. JMIR Mental Health, 7(12), e24578. https://doi.org/10.2196/24578

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Dolan, E., Allott, K., Proposch, A., Hamilton, M., & Killackey, E. (2020). Youth access clinics in Gippsland: Barriers and enablers to service accessibility in rural settings. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 14(6), 734–740. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.12949

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Fox, R., Nic Giolla Easpaig, B., Roberts, R., Greig, J., Burmeister, O., Dufty, J., & Thomas, S. (2020). Evaluating a low-intensity cognitive behavioural program for young people in regional Australia. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 28(2), 195–202. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajr.12619

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Litwin, L., Hankey, J., Lucassen, M., Shepherd, M., Singoorie, C., & Bohr, Y. (2022). Reflections on SPARX, a self-administered e-intervention for depression, for Inuit youth in Nunavut. Journal of Rural Mental Health, 47(1), 41–50. https://doi.org/10.1037/rmh0000218

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Loughhead, M., Guy, S., Furber, G., & Segal, L. (2018). Consumer views on youth friendly mental health service in South Australia. Advances in Mental Health, 16(1), 33–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/18387357.2017.1360748

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Mathias, H., Jackson, L., Hughes, J., & Asbridge, M. (2021). Access to mental health supports and services: Perspectives of young women living in Rural Nova Scotia (Canada). Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 40(2), 89–103. https://doi.org/10.7870/cjcmh-2021-013

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