Adequacy of treatment for child and adolescent mental disorders in Australia: a national study
Open accessAbstract
Objective Worldwide, little information is available about the extent to which children with mental disorders in the general population receive treatment from health professionals that meets minimal clinical practice guidelines. This study identifies the percentage of 6-17 year olds with mental disorders in the 2013-2014 Australian national survey of mental health who had sufficient contact with health professionals during the 18 months after the survey to have received treatment meeting criteria for minimally adequate treatment (MAT). It also identifies factors associated with children having this level of contact with health professionals. Method Mental disorders were identified using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Version IV completed by parents. Health professional attendances and psychotropic medications dispensed were identified from linked national Medicare Benefits Schedule and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme records. Results Only 11.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] [9.1, 14.8]) of children with disorders ( n = 517) had sufficient contact to achieve study criteria for MAT. Furthermore, among children with mental disorders who had severe functional impairment and whose parents perceived that their child needed help ( n = 146), 20.2% (95% CI [14.3, 27.9]) had contact sufficient for MAT, 46.0% (95% CI [37.8, 54.4]) had contact that did not achieve MAT criteria and 33.8% (95% CI [26.1, 42.3]) had no contact with health professionals. In multivariable regres…
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Only a small minority of young people can access adequate care even in high-resource settings, and primary forms of prevention are typically a very low priority.
“Despite this compelling evidence of need, only a small minority of young people can access adequate care even in high-resource settings, 46-48 and primary forms of prevention are daunting, elusive, and typically a very low priority.”
From The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health (2024) · cites this paper as [48]
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- Authors
- Sawyer, M. G., Reece, C. E., Sawyer, A. C., Hiscock, H., & Lawrence, D.
- Affiliations
- Women's and Children's Hospital (AU)
- Royal Children's Hospital (AU)
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Sawyer, Michael G
- Venue
- Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2018-11-02
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 326-335
- ISSN
- 0004-8674 (ISSN-L)
- 1440-1614
- OpenAlex
- W2899169819
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 4.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Adelaide Research & Scholarship (AR&S) (University of Adelaide) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Department of Health, Australian Government
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Keywords
- child psychopathology, adolescent mental disorders, treatment adequacy, help-seeking, functional disability, psychotropic drugs, Australia
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Australia, Mental Disorders, Child, Child Health Services, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health Services, Quality of Health Care, Prevalence, Adolescent Health Services, Health Care Surveys
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