Examining partnerships within an international knowledge translation network focused on youth mental health promotion

Background Systems transformation for health promotion, involving engagement from multiple disciplines and levels of influence, requires an investment in partnership development. Integrated youth service is a collaborative model that brings organisations together to provide holistic care for youth. Frayme is an international knowledge translation network designed to support the uptake and scaling of integrated youth service. Social network analysis (SNA) is the study of relationships among social units and is useful to better understand how partners collaborate within a network to achieve major objectives. The purpose of this paper is to apply SNA to the Frayme network in order to (1) examine the level and strength of partnerships, (2) identify the strategies being employed to promote the main objectives and (3) apply the findings to current research in youth mental health and system transformation. Methods The PARTNER tool includes a validated survey and analysis software designed to examine partner interconnections. This tool was used to perform the SNA and 51 of the 75 partners completed the survey (14 researchers, 2 advisory groups and 35 organisations). A network map was created and descriptive frequencies were calculated. Results The overall network scores for the Frayme network were 20.6% for density, 81.5% for centralisation and 71.7% for overall trust. The Frayme secretariat received a 3.84 out of a possible 4 for value. In addition, the youth and family advisories each received a value score of 4 and all Leadership Team organisations received a score of 2.97 or above. Conclusions The Frayme secretariat links many partners who would otherwise be disconnected and acts as a significant conduit for novel information. Frayme may have the opportunity to enhance value perceptions among broader network members by profiling individual organisations and the potential leveraging opportunities that might exist through their work. These findings increase understanding with respect to the mechanisms of network development and will be helpful to inform partnership development in the future. In addition, they contribute to the literature with respect to knowledge translation practice as well as the scaling of collaborative interventions within youth mental health.