Child and Adolescent Mental Health Project in Cantabria I: Needs Assesment and Needs Priority

Abstract

Background and Objective. Cantabria is a small region in the North of Spain with 525000 inhabitants, 100000 of them under 18 years old. In 1998 a CAMH service was created to provide far the mental health of those children and adolescents. The CAMH team's first task was to develop a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program. This first report describes the resources, the needs assessment and their priority. Method. Epidemiological data, health indicators and information on health resources were collected. Interviews with "Key Professionals" were also used. Needs Priority was established using the Hanlon Method. The third stage was to plan the Program lmplementation, taking into account the organisational context, the scarcity of resources and the political background. Results. Priority has been assessd in starting with an outpatient CAMH service for children up to 14 years old. Next stage will be to cover children and adolescent under 18 years old. The CAMH outpatient service will be in a second tier of Health Organisation, with a geographical distribution respecting equity of access to medica[ care. Different stages in Planning a Program far a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and the decisionmaking process are presented, and its challenges and limitations discussed.