From Adult Lunatic Asylums to CAMHS Community Care: the Evolution of Specialist Mental Health Care for Children and Adolescents 1948-2018

• Published in: Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique
• Main Author: Susan Barrett
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherche et d'Etudes en Civilisation Britannique 2019-08-01
• Subjects: young people; NHS; CAMHS; mental health; history of medicine
• Online Access: https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/4138

The creation of a specific child and adolescent mental health service within the NHS was influenced by a number of factors including changes in adult mental health policies, the evolution of society’s attitudes towards children and parenting, and a greater biological and psychological understanding of how children develop. In the early years of the NHS, care for young people with mental health problems was split between child guidance clinics and hospitals with little communication between the two. A single unified service was not created until 1987, and national guidelines for how the service should be organised were drawn up only in 1995. The effectiveness of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) has, however, been hampered both by a failure to implement the guidelines in the same way throughout the country, and by a lack of financial investment.