Mental health help-seeking among young people with out-of-home care experience: a mixed-methods systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

Introduction

Out-of-home care experienced young people have elevated mental health needs, yet their mental health help-seeking remains insufficiently understood. Understanding help-seeking is critical for identifying barriers and facilitators that shape whether, how and from whom care-experienced young people seek and access mental health support. Existing syntheses are limited in scope and have under-represented quantitative evidence, residential care, care leavers and equity-relevant subgroups. This review will synthesise international evidence on sources, barriers and facilitators of mental health help-seeking among care-experienced young people.

Methods and analysis

This mixed-methods systematic review and meta-analysis protocol is reported in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols and informed by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses-Equity. Electronic searches will be undertaken in PsycINFO, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, Social Sciences Citation Index, Social Policy and Practice, Health Management Information Consortium, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) Plus and Child Development and Adolescent Studies, alongside grey literature and citation searching. Eligible studies will include qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods research involving care-experienced young people aged 13–25 years, including care leavers, and studies reporting help-seeking initiated by young people or on their behalf by adults, carers or professionals. Quantitative and qualitative evidence will be synthesised separately before narrative integration. Meta-analysis will be considered where independent quantitative studies report sufficiently comparable populations, outcomes and effect measures; otherwise, findings will be synthesised narratively using Synthesis Without Meta-analysis (SWiM) guidance. Qualitative findings will be synthesised using thematic synthesis. Study quality will be appraised using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale, Critical Appraisal Skills Programme and Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Equity-relevant characteristics will be extracted where reported, informed by the PROGRESS-Plus framework. Care-experienced young advisors have informed the wider programme and this review, and will contribute to interpretation and dissemination.

Ethics and dissemination

Ethical approval is not required as the review involves secondary analysis of the existing evidence base. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publication, conferences, webinars and accessible outputs co-developed with care-experienced young people.