Child psychiatrists in the 90's: who will want us, who will need us

Child Psychiatry is now a well recognized and established sub-specialty in Canada. It has gone through a period of vigorous and healthy growth. Like psychiatry in general it now faces a number of challenges which provide potential threat but which may lead to better definition of priorities and of its most effective function. Other disciplines, medical and non-medical, increasingly compete for a place on the therapeutic spectrum. Within psychiatry the rhetoric between different schools of thought provides ammunition for those who have no use for any form of psychiatry however it may be provided. The challenge is to develop more effective ways of using the skills of the child psychiatrist within a recognition that the number of practitioners will never approach what would be required to have child psychiatry alone cover the treatment needs of children and adolescents. The field requires the adoption of a more flexible metaphor for training and practice with competence in the different schools of theory and of therapy. Attention needs to be paid to the consumer movement, to the impact of better informed parents and public and to the developing of a parsimonious and selective approach to the use of scarce professional time. The healthy growth of research in child psychiatry is a development long overdue and places the discipline on a scientific rather than a clinical practice base. At a time when funding and the cost of health care are crucial issues the development of a secure knowledge base, efficient methods of service delivery and the integration with other mental health care providers are opportunities and grounds for optimism about the future of the sub-specialty.