Objective: In Northern Ireland, it is widely agreed that mental health service provision for children and young people is inadequate and that there is a need for much greater prioritisation and strategic planning in this area. Successive Governments have made commitments to improve services, and although progress has been made, considerable reform…

Background: Children within historically disadvantaged non-Western South African communities are considered as particularly vulnerable to the development of anxiety problems. Although the need for accessible mental health interventions is evident, this need has remained unmet in a country with extreme socio-economic disparities and a lack of…

Knowledge about the development of mental health in young people in foster care is limited. This naturalistic study examined the effects of a relational and mentalization-focused treatment in foster families in Sweden on the placed young people's mental health. The Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) was used to measure change…

Ten per cent of young people experience mental health difficulties at any one time. Prevention and early intervention leads to better prognosis for young people's mental well-being in the short and long term. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) must be able to provide swift and effective interventions for a range of difficulties to…

Many children taken into care tend to be in need of psychiatric treatment as well as child protection services, and thus the professional expertise of both systems must be coordinated in their care. However, it is widely known across Europe that collaboration between child protection services and mental health services is not working well and the…

Child and youth care (CYC) professionals often provide care to children, youth and families in conjunction with professionals from other disciplines. How CYC professionals engage other service providers in the provision of care for suicidal adolescents requires examination. The purpose of the overall study was to understand and explain the process…

Despite huge investment over the past 10 years, improving outcomes for looked-after children remains elusive. A challenge for practitioners, researchers and policy-makers alike has been the absence of a shared conceptual framework for considering and responding to the needs of looked-after children. A second challenge relates to the measurement of…

The aim of this study was to conduct a preliminary evaluation of a mental health consultation process provided to staff working in residential care settings for young people. Using a semi-structured interview approach, qualitative information was gathered from six participants about their experiences of the consultation. A thematic analysis of the…

An innovative crisis intervention programme was created at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Canada in order to provide emergency assessments for youth presenting with mental health crises. The current investigation presents an overview of the programme and examines the emergency staff's perception and satisfaction with it.…

Psychiatric emergency services for children and adolescents vary in process, structure and outcome. There are few systematic studies on the type and prevalence of psychiatric problems encountered, related circumstances or resulting interventions. Evidence in these areas is important in evaluation of the function of mental health services in the…

This paper gives an overview of the current strategies to deliver Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Traditionally, services for children and adolescents have tended to be almost an afterthought to adult provision and have long been neglected and under-resourced. There is…

This article offers an overview of Resilient Therapy (RT) and outlines a case study of how it can be used in practice. RT draws on the resilience research base, and has been designed to meet the needs of children in crisis by providing insights and analytical tools that help carers and practitioners build relationships of trust in the hardest of…

This paper explores the issue of how to develop a greater level of integration across the continuum services to young people with mental health difficulties. Reference is made to the strategic guidance offered by key documents and a pilot project is described, which attempted to link services across providers including a specialist Child and…

The Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability (Northern Ireland) was established in October 2002 to examine all aspects of the law, policy and provisions that affect people with mental health needs or a learning disability in Northern Ireland. Its report "A Comprehensive Legislative Framework," which deals with the reform…

In this article, the author gives a summary of a conference, organized by Voice of Young People in Care (VOYPIC). The event celebrated the publication of the Caspar Research Report--a report on the mental health of looked-after children and care leavers in Northern Ireland. The event was opened by Vivian McConvey, Director of VOYPIC, who gave some…