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Child and adolescent mental health in sub-Saharan Africa: a perspective from clinicians and researchers

Part of: Children's Mental Health Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jacqueline Phillips Owen ,
Benjamin Baig ,
Catherine Abbo  and
Yonas Baheretibeb
Jacqueline Phillips Owen
Affiliation:
KEMRI–Wellcome Collaborative Programme, Kilifi, Kenya Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, UK, email jacqueline.owen@kcl.ac.uk
Benjamin Baig
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, UK
Catherine Abbo
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
Yonas Baheretibeb
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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There is a widening mental health treatment gap for children and adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa. The region has few economic or human resources dedicated to the mental health of children and young people. The World Health Organization's Mental Health Gap Action Plan and the push for mental health to be included in the Millennium Development Goals have raised the profile of child mental health but comparatively few studies have estimated prevalence rates or assessed needs or tested interventions in African countries. In most countries there is no clear pathway to access treatment, especially in-patient facilities. This article considers these issues from clinical, educational and research perspectives.

Type
Special Paper
Information
BJPsych International , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , May 2016 , pp. 45 - 47
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016

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