ABSTRACT
A recent mental health survey found that 12.8% of children and young people aged 5 to 16 years will have an emotional or behavioural problem at any one time, causing them, or others, concern for their functioning or well-being. Yet the same survey found that, at most, only one in four of these children and young people will be known to the specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
Many children with such problems will be known to staff in schools, teachers or educational psychologists, school nurses or community paediatricians and other primary care staff (general practitioners or health visitors). A primary mental health worker (PMHW) is a professional who works in the community, reasonably independently of other colleagues and on a variety of tasks. It is a role well-developed in the adult services, usually by community mental health nurses. It was developed by CAMHS following the introduction of the HAS Document, 1995. The aim is that the worker will operate within the community.
