Child and adolescent mental health policy and plans in Canada: an analytical review

Child and adolescent mental disorders are common, with a substantial disease burden, yet services for young people are nationally inadequate. As services should be based on policies and (or) plans, we analyzed the availability and content of child and adolescent mental health policies and plans in all provinces and territories.

The World Health Organization (WHO) framework for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Policy and Plans was applied.

Four provinces in Canada have a child and adolescent mental health policy and (or) plan. The other provinces do not have a policy or plan in place, or else try to integrate these components into existing mental health strategies. Among the policies and plans that exist, there is substantial variability regarding content as well as degree of adherence to the WHO template. Five essential content areas: legislation and human rights, information systems, quality improvement, improving access to and use of psychotropics, and human resource development and training are poorly or very poorly addressed in existing policies and (or) plans.

This lack of specific policy and (or) plans for child and adolescent mental health care and the variability of content in plans that exist may help explain why child and adolescent mental health services are poorly developed across Canada. We suggest that a national child and adolescent mental health policy framework be developed for Canada so that the provinces and territories may be encouraged to create or amend their current child and adolescent mental health frameworks in a manner that may enhance national cohesion and commonly addresses service needs in this population.