# By Youth, For Youth: Digital Supported Peer Navigation for Addressing Child Mental Health Inequities

> **NIH NIH U01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2022 · $1,886,317

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Despite significant progress in research, practice, and policy over the past few decades, many children and
youth continue to experience poor mental health outcomes based on their socioeconomic disadvantage, ethnic
or racial minority status, or immigrant status. African American and Latino youth have 1.5–3 times greater odds
of experiencing an unmet mental health need than do their white counterparts and are more likely to be
negatively impacted by social determinants of mental health related to poverty. With their unrivaled ability to
reach youth, school-based and pediatric primary care services are ideal hubs to provide mental health,
healthcare, social services, and prevention to students and families who otherwise face barriers to care. Using
Participatory Design and Community Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR), UCLA and UCSF
psychiatry research centers with Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health and San Francisco Health Network
propose to: (1) Fully co-design (with youth, caregivers, clinicians and other stakeholders) an innovative mental
health digital tool, called 4Youth, to implement algorithmically supported mental health and social determinants
screening and triage, resiliency apps and navigation activities AND help support the primary care-clinical
workforce within school centers and pediatric services; (2) Study the implementation of two mental health
navigation models separately (family navigaton+4Youth and youth navigation+4Youth), and their combined
effectiveness for improving connecting and matching youth to the right level of care and supports. This project
will be initiated with youth 11-24 years old and family and community members across 10 Los Angeles Unified
School District (LAUSD) Wellness Centers and 10 San Francisco Health Network pediatric primary care
centers, which serve mostly Black, Latino, and Asian children. Mobile technology approaches are gaining
empirical support and hold great potential for enhancing mental health navigator models. Incorporating
scalable digital health tools, and statistically evaluated algorithms to aid the navigation process, such as
screening, triage, tracking, connecting to care, and multi-level communication, will help ensure youth are
receiving optimal care that navigators, providers and other relevant systems can measure. A successful
outcome of the project is a CPPR developed open-source intervention implementable in school-based and
pediatric primary care services, for improving mental health services access for minoritized youth.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10414497
- **Project number:** 1U01MH131827-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** LISA R FORTUNA
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $1,886,317
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-15 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10414497

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10414497, By Youth, For Youth: Digital Supported Peer Navigation for Addressing Child Mental Health Inequities (1U01MH131827-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10414497. Licensed CC0.

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