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Child and adolescent mental health policy worldwide: an update

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jess P. Shatkin
Affiliation:
New York University School of Medicine, NYU Child Study Center, 577 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA, email jess.shatkin@nyumc.org
Neaka Balloge
Affiliation:
New York University
Myron L. Belfer
Affiliation:
Harvard Medical School
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Few countries worldwide maintain policies specifically designed to address the mental health needs of children and adolescents. Yet policies are essential to guide the development of systems of care, training programmes for practitioners, and research endeavours. Without policy, there is no clear pathway for programme development, no specific commitment from government, no expression of governance, no guide to support funding, and no clarification of who exactly is responsible for providing services to children and adolescents. In 2004, we published a report aimed at identifying child and adolescent mental health policies worldwide (Shatkin & Belfer, 2004). The present review expands upon that report and provides an up-to-date assessment of these policies.

Type
Thematic Papers - Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Services
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2008

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