Developing a Structure of Essential Services for a Child and Adolescent Mental Health System

Policy Points:

• That child and adolescent mental health services needs are frequently unmet has been known for many decades, yet few systemic solutions have been sought and fewer have been implemented at scale.
• Key among the barriers to improving child and adolescent mental health services has been the lack of well‐organized primary mental health care. Such care is a mutual but uncoordinated responsibility of multiple disciplines and agencies.
• Achieving consensus on the essential structures and processes of mental health services is a feasible first step toward creating an organized system.