363 - The National Center for Adolescent and Young Adult Health and Well-Being: Youth Co-Designed Cross-sector Systems Integration for Adolescent and Young Adult Health and Well-Being

Publication Number: 363.6882

Elizabeth Miller, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; Sara Kinsman, Maternal and Child Health Bureau/Health Resources and Services Administration, Rockville, MD, United States; Lesli Vipond, American Academy of Pediatrics, Chicago, IL, United States

Background: U.S. adolescents and young adults (AYA) face significant challenges to their health and well-being, including exposure to violence, mental health concerns, school suspension, employment, and housing instability, with disproportionate impact on AYA experiencing marginalization and discrimination. These interconnected problems stem from deep-rooted structural inequities which cannot be addressed in isolation. Opportunity to drive systemic change is hampered by silo-ing of systems, few incentives for cross-sector collaboration, limited involvement of AYA in designing solutions, and challenges in collating shared data and metrics to monitor progress. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently released report - Launching Lifelong Health by Improving Health Care for Children, Youth, and Families - highlights advancing systems integration and ensuring that approaches are co-designed with youth. To address these challenges, the National Center for Adolescent and Young Adult Health and Well-Being (Center) was created through a cooperative agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration in September 2023.

Objective: The Center’s purpose is to promote AYA health and well-being using a youth co-design model to accelerate cross-sector system coordination and integration.

Design/Methods: In 2024, together with AYA, leaders from national organizations representing health care, schools, and community programs formed the Center’s Cross-Sector Alliance (Alliance), conducted environmental scans for examples of systems integration, organized listening sessions with AYA and key constituents, and completed a literature review. This youth co-design model includes AYA with a variety of lived experiences to serve as Alliance members and leaders. AYA are involved at every stage of program development. In building this intergenerational, cross-sector partnership, non-youth Alliance members were taught collaboration and communication practices to optimize intergenerational listening, learning, self-reflection, cohesiveness, and collaboration.

Results: Adult Alliance members reported that learning from the experiences and insights of young people has helped them better recognize challenges in health care, school, and community system integration that many AYA experience. AYA identified mental health as high priority.

Conclusion(s): By using a youth co-design model to identify, elevate, and support system integration approaches, the Alliance is ensuring that youth voices are central to developing innovative, holistic, and synergistic solutions to advance AYA health and well-being.