Addressing HIV care, mental health and substance use among youth and young adults in the Bay Area: description of an intervention to improve information, motivation and behavioural skills.

"Competing interests: None declared."

"Funding: The study is funded by the California HIV/AIDS Research Program (award number HD15-SF-060) (coprincipal investigators PS and CDR) and the National Institutes of Health (award number K24DA037034, MJ)."

"Objective: Youth represent a population disparately impacted by the HIV epidemic. With most new HIV diagnoses occurring among adolescents and young adults, novel approaches to address this disparity are necessary. The objective of the current study was to describe the Youth to Telehealth and Text to Improve Engagement in Care (Y2TEC) intervention, which aims to fill this gap. The Y2TEC intervention (trial registration NCT03681145) offers an innovative approach to improve HIV treatment engagement among youth living with HIV by focusing on treatment barriers related to mental health and substance use. This allows for a holistic approach to providing culturally informed intervention strategies for this population."