Youth voices in action: CALM is setting a new standard in youth mental health

• CALM places youth at the center of mental health research, engaging 28 young people with multiple mental health conditions to co-design digital mental health tools and establishing authentic partnership model adopted at six sites across Canada
• Three patient-centered clinical trials reflect youth priorities, testing coordinated care (SCY-Well), self-stigma interventions (NECT-Y), and personalized sleep support designed with and for adolescents
• Youth-informed approach transforms research design, demonstrating that meaningful involvement of lived experience produces more relevant, accessible, and effective interventions for growing number of adolescents facing mental health challenges

Mental health conditions affect a growing number of adolescents, yet traditional research and care models often overlook their lived experiences. The Cohort network for Adolescents and Youth with Multiple Mental Health Conditions (CALM) – one of the Ontario Brain Institute's Integrated Discovery Programs – is addressing that gap by placing youth and families at the center of its work.

“Having a hand in shaping this study means a lot to me. Youth have many ideas to share that are informed by our unique lived experiences and have the potential to completely change the way we think about mental health care. Within CALM, we are given the space to come together and inform research that we truly believe can help youth with multiple mental health conditions.” - Youth Advisor, CALM

From principle to practice: A blueprint for engagement

CALM's commitment to meaningful involvement began with a central question: What does true partnership look like in youth mental health research?

A recent publication in Digital Health, co-led by Lisa D. Hawke along with CALM youth specialists, Thalia Phi and Jamie Gibson, demonstrates what authentic partnership with youth can achieve in mental health innovation. The study engaged 28 young people living with multiple mental health conditions (MMC) to co-design a digital conversational agent (DCA) – an emerging tool to support youth mental health. Participants were recruited through CALM's Toronto Adolescent and Youth (TAY) Cohort study at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

The methodology was as powerful as the findings. Youth identified four essential design priorities: customizable and flexible features, strong privacy safeguards, validated content, and a human-like interaction style.

As one participant emphasized: "I think the accessibility of the chatbot, you want to make it very user-friendly and make sure that anybody who might have accessibility challenges is still able to use it." [Participant #1]

Another highlighted the importance of trauma-informed features: "Spot some warning signs of trauma." [Participant #10]

CALM's lived experience advisory panel, family advisors, youth engagement specialists, and industry partners guided the process from design to reporting, illustrating how authentic co-design produces both practical and ethical insights.

While further testing is needed in real-world settings and across diverse groups, including Indigenous, 2SLGBTQI+, newcomer, and racialized youth, this study lays critical groundwork for youth-informed digital tools.

However, the result shows great promise: that an internationally relevant model for authentic partnership, one that moves beyond token consultation to co-design tools can expand access, reduce stigma, and improve care for youth mental health.

Translating research into reality: CALM's three patient-centered trials

CALM put this theory into practice by launching three clinical trials that exemplify youth-centered research design:

• Specialty Care for Youth Wellness (SCY-Well): Provides coordinated, youth-friendly care, including therapy, family support, and help with education or employment.
• Narrative Enhancement and Cognitive Therapy (NECT-Y): Helps youth address self-stigma, enhance treatment engagement, and strengthen social connection.
• Sleep Pilot Trial: Tests whether personalized sleep interventions improve sleep and mental health outcomes.

Each trial reflects CALM's core insight: when young people help design the research, the interventions become more relevant, feasible, and ultimately more effective. These aren't studies happening to youth – they're investigations happening with them, shaped by their priorities and lived experiences from day one.

Reshaping mental health research and care with youth

As the trials progress into 2026, the CALM team seeks evidence of how centering lived experience in research can enhance mental health care and outcomes. This patient-centered model has been adopted at six CALM sites across Canada, creating a ripple effect that is reshaping youth mental health research.

One of the things I'm most proud of in CALM is the involvement of youth, families, and caregivers in every step of the process — alongside an advisory focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion. Mental health research too often fails to reflect the diversity of the communities it serves. We want to design studies that are representative, inclusive, and truly generalizable, while ensuring our research questions matter in the real world.

- Dr. Louise Gallagher, Program Director at CALM