Developing needs led child and adolescent mental health services: issues and prospects

Area of Science:

• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Health Services Research
• Public Health Policy

Background:

• Historically, child mental health services developed incrementally with limited focus on local population needs.
• Recent efforts aim for more rational planning of child mental health services over the past decade.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the necessary information for developing a needs-led child mental health service.
• To discuss priority-setting within the context of needs-led service development.

Main Methods:

• Literature review on needs assessment and service planning in child mental health.
• Analysis of current trends in evaluating clinical practice and service models.

Main Results:

• Child and adolescent mental health service needs assessment remains largely unsystematic.
• There is a discernible trend towards more systematic evaluation of clinical practice.
• Individual treatment efficacy and outcome measurement are well-understood.
• Several models of good practice in child mental health services are being defined and assessed.

Conclusions:

• Developing needs-led child mental health services requires specific information and strategic priority setting.
• While needs assessment is improving, systematic evaluation of services and treatments is becoming more established.
• Future development should focus on integrating needs assessment with evidence-based practice and evaluated service models.