Attachments
Chapter 1: Introduction
Mental health conditions are prevalent and often develop early in life, with a third of conditions emerging before the age 14, and half before the age of 18 years. Yet very few of the world’s children and young people receive the mental health services they need and to which they are entitled. All countries need to invest in building and improving mental health services for children and young people. This is essential to realize their full rights, ensure that they can meet their potential, alleviate unnecessary suffering, and to enable sustainable development and foster prosperous, stable communities.
There is no single best model for organizing mental health services that applies to all contexts. But every country, no matter its resource constraints, can take steps to improve the design and strengthen the delivery of mental health services for children and young people. This service guidance document aims to catalyse a much-needed global transformation of services for children and young people aged 5-24 years through its focus on community-based mental health care. This document is designed to inform and inspire policy makers and others responsible for mental health services for children and young people, through introducing key issues to consider, and by sharing a broad range of good practice approaches to developing or re-orienting services at community level.