Infant and child mental health

Between one quarter and one half of mental health problems in adults could be prevented through treatment during childhood and adolescence.

WA research has found that 11% of children aged two years had behaviour problems and one in five children aged five years has significant behaviour problems. Many of these problems could be prevented by supporting parents to develop strong, stable relationships with their infants.

Investing in the early years will help prevent mental health problems developing in the future. We have an opportunity to reduce the burden of mental health problems by intervening when problems first emerge.

Infancy and childhood are times of rapid development when key building blocks for lifelong health, development, learning and wellbeing are put in place. Children who have mental health problems early in life can miss out on this important early development and be set up for lifelong mental health problems.

New developments include the New Children’s Hospital planned for completion in 2015 will provide a state-of-the-art facility for the treatment of children under 16 years of age who require specialist mental health inpatient care.

There is also increased investment in workforce development and training with:

• perinatal mental health training in the Kimberley for GPs, other mental health practitioners and midwives and directed towards perinatal depression and related disorders
• increased funding for adolescent psychiatry training posts to place trainees in basic, advanced and specialist psychiatric training across the metropolitan area
• infant mental health scholarships to provide a better skilled and equipped infant mental health workforce.