Around the world, a vast number of children and adolescents suffer from mental and neurological disorders and only a small proportion of them receive adequate care. This is so in both developing and developed countries. The need to raise awareness about this problem and provide specific advice regarding their prevention and treatment was identified as a priority for the World Psychiatric Association by Professor Ahmed Okasha during his Presidency of the Association and resulted in the creation of his Presidential Programme on Child Mental Health. This book presents some of the fruits of this programme and constitutes a global call to action for mental health workers and policy makers.

The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents: An area of global neglectbrings together information on the burden of mental disorders in childhood and adolescence with methods of raising public awareness of these problems. The book also describes therapeutic and preventive interventions that could diminish them. It then presents the results of field studies in Brazil, Egypt and Russia documenting the effectiveness of interventions to prevent school dropout in those three very different countries. 

With its emphasis on practical guidance for the development of interventions to prevent or treat child and adolescent mental health, The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents: An area of global neglectprovides much-needed information of direct interest to health professionals and the many others involved in the provision of health care to children and adolescents in both the developing and the developed countries.

Around the world, a vast number of children and adolescents suffer from mental and neurological disorders and only a small proportion of them receive adequate care. This is so in both developing and developed countries. The need to raise awareness about this problem and provide specific advice regarding their prevention and treatment was identified as a priority for the World Psychiatric Association by Professor Ahmed Okasha during his Presidency of the Association and resulted in the creation of his Presidential Programme on Child Mental Health. This book presents some of the fruits of this programme and constitutes a global call to action for mental health workers and policy makers.

The book brings together information on the burden of mental disorders in childhood and adolescence with methods of raising public awareness of these problems. It also describes therapeutic and preventive interventions that could diminish them. It then presents the results of field studies in Brazil, Egypt and Russia documenting the effectiveness of interventions to prevent school dropout in those three very different countries. 

With its emphasis on practical guidance for the development of interventions to prevent or treat child and adolescent mental health, the book provides much-needed information of direct interest to health professionals and the many others involved in the provision of health care to children and adolescents in both the developing and the developed countries.

Although the majority of the world’ s population are children and adolescents, of whom a significant proportion suffer from mental and neurological disorders, there had never been an international programme that aimed to improve the care for children and adolescents who suffer from such disorders. During his Presidency of the World Psychiatric Association, Professor Ahmed Okasha initiated the WPA Presidential Global Programme on Child Mental Health.  This book represents the result of three years’ work by participants in this programme.

The programme involved three task forces focused on 1) prevention, 2) treatment and 3) awareness, and encompassed, directly or indirectly, the activities of over 100 child and adolescent mental health professionals worldwide.  The book supplements the materials developed during the initiative, with chapters on the burden of disease, epidemiology, public awareness, therapeutic and preventative interventions.  It also features field studies from three continents to reduce school drop-out rates in different countries.

The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents: An area of global neglect is the first book devoted primarily to the issues of international child mental health. It combines practical guidance on the development of interventions, prevention and global burden of disease. This book fills a gap in the information available for psychiatrists and psychologists in the developed world interested in the topic and will be a primary resource for all healthcare professionals dealing with this topic in the developing world.

Helmut Remschmidt, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Phillips University, Marburg, Germany

Barry Nurcombe, MD, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Queensland, Australia

Myron L. Belfer, MD, MPA, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, USA 

Norman Sartorius, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Ahmed Okasha, MD, Professor and Director, WHO Collaborating Center, Institute of Psychiatry, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

List of Contributors

Advisory Board

Preface

Acknowledgements

1 A Global Programme for Child and Adolescent Mental Health: A Challenge in the New Millennium (Myron Belfer, Helmut Remschmidt, Barry Nurcombe, Ahmed Okasha, and Norman Sartorius).

2 Public Awareness of Child and Adolescent Mental Health: A Review of the Literature (Sam Tyano and Anat Fleischman).

3 The Epidemiology and Burden of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorder (Myron Belfer and Barry Nurcombe).

4 Disseminating Child and Adolescent Mental Health Treatment Methods: An International Feasibility Study (Jose J. Baumeister, John Fayyad, Richard Harrington (deceased), Jack (S.F.) Hung, Kimberly Hoagwood, Peter Jensen, Kelly Kelleher, Laura Murray, Cheryl So; and site directors Alan Apter and Orit Krispin (Tel Aviv, Israel), John Fayyad, MD (Lebanon), Luis Rhode and Paulo Knapp (Porto Alegre, Brazil), and Amira Seif El Din (Alexandria, Egypt)).

5 Prevention of Mental Health Disorders in Children and Adolescents

5.1 The Principles of Prevention in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (Barry Nurcombe).

5.2Evidence-based Primary Prevention Programs for the Promotion of Mental Health in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Worldwide Review (Martine F. Flament, Hien Nguyen, Howard Schachter, Claudia Furino, Cathy Cuzner, Danuta Wasserman, Norman Sartorius, and Helmut Remschmidt).

5.3Violence and Trauma: Evidence-based Assessment and Intervention in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review (Ernesto Caffo and Carlotta Belaise).

5.4School Dropout: A Systematic Worldwide Review Concerning Risk Factors and Preventive Interventions (Ana Soledade Graeff-Martins, Tatyana Dmitrieva, Amira Seif El Din, Ernesto Caffo, Martine F. Flament, Barry Nurcombe, Per-Anders Rydelius, Helmut Remschmidt, and Luis Augusto Rhode).

5.5 School Violence: Epidemiology, Background, and Prevention (Helmut Remschmidt).

6 Preventive Interventions in School Dropout: Three Field Studies

6.1 A Comprehensive Intervention for the Prevention of School Dropout in Brazil (Ana Soledade Graeff-Martins, Sylvia Oswald, Júlia Obst Comassetto, Christian Kieling, Renata Rocha Gonçalves, and Luis Augusto Rhode).

6.2A Comprehensive Program for the Prevention of Dropout in an Egyptian Public School (Amira Seif El Din, M. Azzer, and Doa Habib).

6.3 A Comprehensive Intervention to Prevent School Dropout and

Reduce School Absenteeism in a Public School in a Russian Industrial City(V. Andreyuk, A. Zanozin, and Tatjana Dmitrieva).

Index.