Editorial: Global mental health: challenges & opportunities

There are few human tragedies that stir sympathy and concern more deeply than to see the suffering of children from around the world, often giving rise to spontaneous feelings and impulses of wanting to help. However, such impulses need to be harnessed in a productive manner. Knowledge and training in the psychopathology and phenomenology of mental illness is not enough. New, innovative, evidence-based treatments and interventions are equally important if we are to adequately address the needs of our youth who carry the burden of a psychiatric and/or behavioral condition. This edition of CAMH includes papers that address both the challenges and opportunities in terms of the way in which interventions underpinned by research can work to improve global mental health and how we can better understand the environmental, familial, cultural and societal underpinnings of global child mental health problems.