Child and adolescent mental health: infrastructure, policies and practices in England: the CAMHEE project

Abstract

The European Union-suppor ted Child and Adolescent Mental Health in an Enlarged Europe (CAMHEE) project aimed to provide an overview of the challenges, current practice and guidelines for developing effective mental health promotion and mental illness prevention policy and practice across Europe. As par t of this work, an analysis was under taken of the situation in England, making use of a bespoke data collection instrument and protocol. Our analysis suggests that there has been significant effor t and investment in research, needs assessment, policy, human resource and service developments in CAMHS over the last 20 years, leading to a more detailed understanding and availability of services. Much of the emphasis has been on assessment and management of difficulties, however in recent years attention has begun to focus on mental health promotion. National standards and programmes such as Every Child Matters (Depar tment for Education and Skills, 2004) have acted as catalysts for a number of national initiatives