ABSTRACT
Children are a nation’s most precious resource yet services for children and adolescents are often the least developed and resourced. Childhood and adolescent services need to be considered in a holistic manner, incorporating: mental health promotion in schools; prevention and early detection in schools and primary care; outreach to vulnerable groups such as street children (see below); prompt management in schools and primary care; referrals to child guidance clinics for difficult cases; and, only very rarely, admission to specialist units for brief in-patient care. Child guidance clinics in many low-income countries are still relatively unusual but are becoming well established in countries such as India, supported by the academic growth of the specialty (Naik, 2001).
