Mental Health Services for Children: Concerns and Challenges

At various times in my career, I have focussed on mental health services for children and their basis in human rights principles. This year I returned to examining best practices and how they could be implemented in a particular place – the State of Illinois, in the United States, where I reside. I found myself reflecting on improvements in services over the last 40 years, but even more, on the significant challenges and gaps in our knowledge that remain. I want to focus this commentary on two topics I found most salient: Contradictions between principles and practice; and need for more research on how to provide services in the most restrictive settings – inpatient and residential.