Better than Better: The New Focus on Well-Being in Child Psychiatry

Training and practice within child psychiatry has focused predominantly on mental illness rather than mental health. A growing body of evidence, however, is demonstrating the importance for clinicians also to be able to focus directly on enhancing positive traits and emotions and increasing well-being and health promotion in their patients. This complementary aspect of mental health care has been called well-being and positive psychiatry, among other terms. Being able to apply these principles to standard practice requires new knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are not part of traditional psychiatric training.