I wondered how I might best summarise some of the notable features of modern day Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. I thought also to do so in a way which is both helpful to potential contributors, and also in sympathy with the rapidly growing, non-hierarchical, world-wide, intellectually plauralistic entity which is the Internet.
With the above in mind, perhaps three important characteristics of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry as currently practised might be summarised by the "3 Ms" - Multi-ethnic; Multi-factorial aetiology; Multi-disciplinary teams.....
Multi-ethnic
Both the client group and readership are multiethnic. A journal which offers world wide coverage must therefore be sensitive to ethnic issues. Furthermore, both the authorship and the content of papers must reflect the diversity of world-wide cultures; indeed to do otherwise is to condone a provincialism which is against the philosophy of the Internet. We therefore invite (and look forward to) contributions from people of all cultures, worldwide.
Multi-factorial aetiology
Many conditions in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry may be considered as having a multifactorial aetiology, with a number of potential components - genetic, constitutional, environmental - contributing to a given condition. Environmental factors may ( for example) play the greatest part in conditions arising from child abuse; constitutional factors may play a major role in certain "hard wired" conditions such as autism, or hyperkinesis. Most conditions are however probably the result of a mixture of factors.
Inevitably, there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by any one theorist; there is no narrow, all encompassing theory. Instad, there are a large number of theories (and a large number of theorists), often conflicting.
This plurality needs to be accepted and addressed: we therefore welcome contributions reflecting a wide range of theoretical orientations.
Multi-disciplinary teams
The UK Department of Health published in 1994 "A Handbook of Child and Adolescent Mental Health", which contained a number of useful guidelines concerning the structure and function of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
The document drew attention (amongst other things) to the wide range of professional disciplines involved in CAMHS both at the level of primary, secondary and tertiary referral.
These professions include, at the level of primary care: family doctors, nurses working in the community, social workers, teachers, and workers within the juvenile justice system.
At more specialist levels of the CAMHS structure, we include child psychiatrists, clinical nurse specialists, clinical psychologists, educational psychologists and specialist social workers. In addition there will (ideally) be available to the team the services of specialists such as child psychotherapists, family therapists, occupational therapists, and art music and drama therapists.
Finally we have, at the most specialised level, those units and teams which meet the needs of young persons requiring adolescent in-patient beds, forensic teams, and services relating to eating disorders, sexual abuse and neuropsychiatric problems.
We welcome, therefore, contributions from various countries, various disciplines and on varying topics. We are always open to new suggestions, but in particular are calling for:
This medium is ideally suited to rapid feedback; we are keen where appropriate to publish letters, and look forward to the generation of ongoing discssion.
We look forward to hearing from you.
