A key challenge facing the mental health field is connecting children and families to services when symptoms first appear. Multiple barriers inhibit timely access to treatment, and interventions to resolve barriers to care are not common among health and social care organisations. To address this research‐to‐practice gap this study undertook a scoping review of the empirical literature aimed at identifying key factors in the social ecology of families which influence family engagement with child and adolescent mental health services, then identifying and describing models of intervention designed to help facilitate access to care. Forty studies published between 1 January 2000 and 28 February 2019 were reviewed. Key factors associated with child and adolescent mental health service engagement included family attitudes towards mental illness and help seeking, the flexibility and availability of needed services, community attitudes and stigma surrounding mental illness and mental health treatment, and the degree of coordination and integration across systems of health and social care. Models of intervention to facilitate engagement with mental health services included family outreach, telephone and digital health strategies, and integrated care approaches. Empirical support is strongest for family outreach and integrated care, although telephone and digital health strategies are underexplored with children and families and a potentially promising avenue for future research. To support family engagement with child and adolescent mental health services health and social care organisations should be prepared to identify barriers in their local practice settings and integrate efficacious engagement approaches into their continuum of available services.

Adolescence is a period of development that is widely understood as a time of exploration, experimentation and engagement with risk behaviours. Prevention and intervention with adolescent youth require a nuanced understanding of the factors associated with adolescent risks and the ways in which youth acquire and master the skills needed to promote healthy development. To assist social workers in providing developmentally and contextually sensitive services to adolescents, this study undertook a scoping review of the theory and practice of positive youth development. A total of sixty-five articles published between 1997 and 2017 were reviewed. Major contributions to the theory of positive youth development are summarised and followed by a description and appraisal of research evidence for seven programme formats that include camp, wilderness-adventure and outdoor programmes, sports, art, music, mentoring and school-based programmes. Results suggests positive youth-development programmes are diverse and can be tailored to a range of adolescent needs spanning geographic and cultural contexts; however, due to methodological heterogeneity, empirical support is not equal across programme formats. Considerations for social work researchers, educators and practitioners who are interested in utilising positive youth development as a social work prevention and intervention with adolescents are provided.