Child and adolescent psychiatry in the Far East

Despite the general consensus on the importance of youth mental health, the scarcity of child and adolescent mental health services is prominent all over the world. Child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) postgraduate training can play a pivotal role in increasing access to youth mental health services. In comparison to Europe and North America, however, little is reported regarding CAP training in the Far East, one of the most dynamic and rapidly developing world regions with a very young population. This paper presents an original study on the current status of academic child and adolescent psychiatry training across the Far East.

We collected data from 17 countries in the Far East using an internally distributed questionnaire to the Consortium members invited for this study, consisting of leading academic child and adolescent psychiatrists in each country.

Based on informants' input, we found an overall underdevelopment of CAP postgraduate training systems despite CAP's recognition as a subspecialty in 12 of 17 of the nations or functionally self-governing areas in the Far East. Paucity of official guidelines for CAP training was also evident. All informants reported a need for additional child and adolescent mental health professionals.

There seems to be several obstacles to the development of CAP postgraduate training in the Far East, including stigma towards mental health issues and lack of funding. International collaboration is desired to develop evidence-based and culture-tailored CAP training systems.