[Twenty-five years of child and adolescent psychiatry in the Netherlands: patterns of practice]

The department of child- and adolescent psychiatry of the Dutch Association of Psychiatry has regularly investigated the practice of child- and adolescent psychiatry since 1996. This article reports the results of the 2021 survey.

Investigating the composition and practice of the group of child- and adolescent psychiatrists, with special attention to the effect of the decentralization of child mental healthcare to the municipalities in 2015.

A postal survey; descriptive analysis of collected data.

The number of child- and adolescent psychiatrists remained constant since 2012: 445, with sixty-eight percent women. Eighty percent works in institutional practice. Ten percent holds an interim position. Eighty percent reports an increase in workload. Professional satisfaction is mainly derived from patient care.

Despite the unrest caused by the decentralization, the number of child- and adolescent psychiatrists remained stable over the last ten years. Since 2021 there have been negative, as well as positive developments. Therefore repetition of this survey in a few years is recommended.