Project 459719

Supporting Healthy Lifestyle Choices to Promote Mental Health & Wellbeing in Indigenous Youth "Aging-Out-of-Care" to Urban Settings An intent of this research is to examine and explicate implementation science and implementation testing from within Indigenous contexts. The study plans to identify Indigenous principles inherent and foundational to implementation science, such as integrated KTE or knowledge mobilization, but it will also further develop the scholarly dialogue around 'implementation testing' within vulnerable populations who experience multiple and complex inequities to health. In Canada, 52.2% of children in foster care are Indigenous, but account for only 7.7% of the child population according to Census 2016. This means 14,970 out of 28,665 foster children 'in-care' homes under the age of 15 are Indigenous. The aim of this research is to support Indigenous youth, ages 12-17, as they 'age-out-of-care' in making healthy lifestyle choices that can impact their mental health and overall wellbeing while preventing chronic illness later in life. three areas of focus include: Implementation research based on implementation science and Indigenous holistic concepts of health to produce evidence of scalable and sustainable interventions that support the healthy lifestyle choices of Indigenous youth as they 'age-out-of-care' to an urban setting; Strengthen and build the capacity of health practitioners and trainees in implementation science and enhancement of services and resources to support the mental health and wellbeing of Indigenous youth; and, Mobilize evidence-based outcomes to support Canadian cities in planning and implementing a model and framework unique to urban contexts and needs of the Indigenous youth, who will 'age-out-of-care' to an urban setting.