ABSTRACT
Specialist mental health services are inundated with referrals and find it difficult to cope with the increasing demand for services for children and adolescents. There is an urgent need to focus resources on the promotion of mental well-being and the prevention of children’s mental health difficulties. Schools provide an ideal setting for this as they allow regular access to all children, which means that teachers can implement preventative strategies that avoid stigmatising those children who are vulnerable to mental health problems. The recent focus on performance indicators and academic targets in schools, however, has made this more difficult.
