Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a community-based mental health and wellbeing service for black, Asian and minoritized young people: a qualitative study

Background Young people from minoritized ethnic backgrounds often encounter challenges in accessing mental health support. We evaluated implementation of a pilot mental health and wellbeing service in a community youth centre for young people from minoritised ethnic backgrounds. Methods We evaluated the service during its first 12 months of implementation. We held twelve service provider interviews and six paired interviews with young people. Fieldnotes were taken and used to contextualise data. Service providers recorded young people’s attendance and wellbeing data. Interview data were analysed thematically to identify barriers and facilitators to successful service implementation. The quantitative attendance and wellbeing data were analysed descriptively using Excel. Results The service was developed iteratively at the youth centre over several months. Once established the service included a weekly two-hour session with mental health practitioners involving opportunistic wellbeing conversations and activities, an offer of one-to-one and group drop-in and mentoring sessions, and an identification and referral pathway to secondary community services. Attendance of young people was inconsistent, and only a few young people provided wellbeing data. Both providers’ and young people’s accounts indicated that implementation was supported by the positive influence of the setting, lived experience of the service providers, iterative development of the service, and trust building. Barriers included inconsistent attendance of young people, the informal and unstructured nature of activities delivered, slow pace of service delivery, and the young people’s reluctance to engage in wellbeing services and evaluation. Conclusion Successful implementation of wellbeing services in community settings for minoritized young people requires investing in relationship building between providers and recipients, and flexibility in how the intervention is delivered and at what pace. Development and evaluation of similar services in future should account for these requirements.