Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services: Insights from the Field of Intellectual Disability

Nearly one third of the Indian population is children and adolescents. As per global estimates one among every five in this age may face some kind of mental health challenges and needs. Though many significant achievements have been made in this field, there is a lot of scope for innovations in identification and management. Perhaps, we may develop some insights by examining the subgroups of childhood disorders. In this context, Intellectual disability (ID), which received special attention from mental health field roughly at the same time as child and adolescent area has received, is taken up as an example for its remarkable progress. The aim of this presentation is to highlight some major challenges in the field of Child and adolescent mental health and draw insights and parallels from the field of Intellectual Disability.