Diana Salcedo Trejo

The research article “Youth mental health and/or addiction concerns and service needs during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative exploration of caregiver experiences and perspectives” focuses on the impacts of mental health and addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic from the caregiver standpoint and how difficult it was for them to access the help they need. The population being studied were caregivers with youth ages 13-26 with mental health and/or addiction. In total 64 interviews were conducted but only 46 were included in the study. The methodology that was was a qualitative approach that looked for the caregiver’s experience in accessing Mental Health and Addiction (MHA) resources during the pandemic, the participants were recruited through social media advertisements. Participants completed a qualitative interview by phone that lasted from twenty four minutes to an hour. The research came into conclusion on how receiving virtual care helped youth that experience social anxiety but set back a lot of youth who need the social interactions. It is important to understand the relationship between the caregiver and the youth in order to understand the family function, the caregiver plays an important role in helping the youth receive MHA resources.

The research article was conducted roughly from June 15, 20220-February 11, 2021 and was published in 2022. This research article brought more into the conversation on how difficult it is youth to receive vital care even when in support of family. Finding MHA professional care is even more difficult to receive when there are not enough providers available. It was also brought into light how difficult it was for some to get reliable transportation once they received the appointment to see a professional MHA provider. This article is relevant to my work because we are still easing out of the pandemic and trying to resume our “normal” lives and students who haven’t been able to receive help still haven’t. The pandemic has shown that we need to provide more flexible resources that foster youth engagement and participation. It is obviously clear how much the pandemic has affected us but this article shows that it has affected others in different ways.

This research article was published by the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health Journal and the research was conducted with the Sunnybrook Research Institute. The credibility of this article is high seeing it was published by a journal specifically for mental health.

The author focuses on strategies foster parents can use to improve and combat the systemic issue around racial discrimination . The author's research focuses on providing insight and advice for foster parents who want to support and celebrate their foster child’s Black culture and identity. This article contributes to the field of social work by providing ways to help bridge the gap between foster families and caregivers through providing practical needs and holistic support beyond what the system provides.