ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1612509
This article is part of the Research TopicNeurodevelopmental Disabilities in Childhood and Adolescence: Innovative Policy and ProgramsView all 6 articles
Service Access for Youth with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Transitioning to Adulthood: Service Providers' and Decision-Makers' Perspectives on Barriers, Facilitators and Policy Recommendations
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
- 2Mathison Centre for Mental Health Research & Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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Youth with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (NDD) who are transitioning to adulthood often struggle with accessing services. This limited access can result in poorer health, reduced ability to perform daily activities and engage in independent living and decreased levels of participation in society. Despite Canada’s commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, British Columbia (BC) youth with NDD face additional barriers. This study investigated service providers’ and decision-makers’ perspectives on barriers and facilitators for accessing BC’s health, education and disability services for youth with NDD. We conducted a qualitative descriptive study with 15 semi-structured interviews. We conducted inductive thematic coding to generate themes, which we then organized and interpreted using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. The analysis identified barriers, facilitators and policy recommendations. Findings revealed that organizational complexity, insufficient funding and stigma impede service access, while coordinated interagency collaboration and early intervention may improve outcomes. Targeted policy reforms at multiple ecological levels are crucial to reducing disparities and enhancing support for youth with NDD.
Keywords: neurodevelopment1, transition2, access3, disability4, stakeholders5, barriers6, facilitators7
Received: 15 Apr 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Senevirathna, Basualto, Seth, Dimitropoulos and Zwicker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jennifer D. Zwicker, zwicker1@ucalgary.ca
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