ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ways in which mental health services for children and young people are organized. It identifies the types of problem with which children and young people are referred to mental health services. The chapter provides the evidence base for children’s mental health services and the interventions used within these services. It focuses on the skills required to care for children and young people with mental health problems. Emotional and behavioural problems are the most common reason for referral to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). Behavioural problems such as conduct disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are much more common in children than in adults, though some believe that conduct disorder manifests as anti-social personality disorder in adulthood. Nurses are the largest occupational group working in formal CAMHS, along with child psychiatrists and child psychologists, as one of the key professionals that define a mental health service for children and young people.
