JMIR Res Protoc. 2026 Sep 10;15:e90096. doi: 10.2196/90096.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Despite increasing recognition of adolescents’ and young adults’ mental health needs, many young people continue to experience barriers in accessing timely, acceptable, and responsive mental health and psychosocial support (PSS) services. There is a need for contextually relevant and youth-responsive approaches that meaningfully engage young people, caregivers, and service providers in implementation strategy development. The Asenze Impilo study aims to co-design a mental health and PSS implementation strategy for adolescents and young adults in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa, using a human-centered design (HCD) approach.
OBJECTIVE: This protocol paper describes the methods used to co-design an implementation strategy to enhance existing mental health and PSS services for adolescents and young adults, leveraging resources from the Asenze study, a population-based longitudinal cohort study in KZN, South Africa. The study will use an HCD approach to engage adolescents and young adults, caregivers, and various mental health stakeholders from the Departments of Health, Basic Education, and Social Development, and implementing partner organizations in order to inform how to improve mental health for adolescents and young adults by (1) identifying needs and barriers, (2) developing context-relevant solutions, and (3) refining a co-designed implementation strategy.
METHODS: A 3-phase HCD co-design process will be undertaken, using qualitative multimethods. Participants will include 20 young adults recruited from the Asenze study, 20 caregivers recruited from the Asenze study, and 15 mental health stakeholders from KZN, South Africa. Phase 1, Discover, includes separate HCD workshops with adolescents and young adults, caregivers, and implementation partners to understand existing mental health and PSS services, mental health and PSS needs of adolescents and young adults, and potential evidence-based intervention options and corresponding implementation strategies. Phase 2, Design, includes separate HCD workshops with adolescents and young adults and caregivers to co-design a context-specific mental health and PSS implementation strategy. Phase 3, Build, includes 2 separate HCD workshops with adolescents and young adults and caregivers to refine the co-designed implementation strategy, and a consultation workshop with the mental health stakeholders to review the feasibility and acceptability of the proposed implementation strategy. A qualitative thematic analysis approach will be used, allowing for an inductive and iterative exploration of patterns emerging from the data collected during the HCD workshops.
RESULTS: The study was funded in 2024, and ethics approval was received in March 2025. Enrollment will be completed in April 2025, and data collection will be conducted between May 2025 and January 2026. Findings are expected to be submitted for publication later in 2026.
CONCLUSIONS: The study aims to produce a co-designed implementation strategy to improve delivery of mental health and PSS for adolescents and young adults that is adapted to the local context.
PMID:42721482 | DOI:10.2196/90096
