Pandemic Proof: Synthesizing Real-World Knowledge of Promising Mental Health and Substance Use Practices Utilized During the COVID-19 Pandemic with Young People Who Are Experiencing or Have Experienced Homelessness

The COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting societal inequities in an unprecedented manner. Young people who are experiencing or have experienced homelessness are disproportionately impacted by the negative socioeconomic consequences of the pandemic. The pandemic has also made visible the precarious existence in which these young people live. The aim of this knowledge synthesis was to deliver real-world evidence on promising mental health and substance use practices utilized by front-line providers working during the COVID-19 pandemic with young people who were experiencing or had experienced homelessness. However, the evidence the authors uncovered over the past five months has been less about downstream individual-level interventions and more about the need for upstream structural interventions.