Conclusions
摘要
This concluding chapter provides a brief summary of the scale of the global challenges of mental illness and children in young people, drawing upon the ambitions of national and global policies and legislation. It draws upon existing evidence and the current state of services for young people and their variability, fragmentation and complexity and how that needs to become more responsive and person centred. The chapter calls for integrated care approaches and parity of esteem between physical and mental health. Key take-home messages from the chapters are presented to inform and support all practitioners actively involved in supporting children and young people in whatever settings they work. The concluding section of this chapter describes a mother’s experience of her child’s suicide, the missed opportunities to provide support for the child and how the family have had to comprehend the unimagined task of navigating life without him. It is a heartbreaking and stark reality of the level of distress that some children and young people face, and we hope that through this book that practitioners will feel more confident in having conversations and supporting children and young people’s mental health, with a hope that less families will experience the death of a child due to mental illness.