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Debate: Child and adolescent mental health services in Pakistan; Do we need in‐patient mental health facilities for children and young people?
Author(s) -
Hamdani Syed Usman,
Huma Zille,
TamizuddinNizami Asad
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
child and adolescent mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1475-3588
pISSN - 1475-357X
DOI - 10.1111/camh.12463
Subject(s) - mental health , anxiety , psychiatry , depression (economics) , child and adolescent psychiatry , psychology , pandemic , developing country , medicine , covid-19 , economic growth , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , economics , macroeconomics
Depression and anxiety are leading causes of morbidity in children and adolescents worldwide. In Pakistan, young people are exposed to many chronic adversities including violence, social and economic inequalities, and are at greater risk of developing mental health problems. Yet there is a lack of trained human resources, in‐patient child and adolescent mental healthcare facilities, and training opportunities in child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health in Pakistan. Given the poor economic condition of the country, which has been made even worse by the COVID‐19 pandemic, it is very unlikely that dedicated resources will be made available in near future to develop specialist child and adolescent mental health services in Pakistan. To bridge this treatment gap, we propose a multitiered, transdiagnostic, task‐shifting strategy‐based model for child and adolescent mental health services in Pakistan.