Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie
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Child and adolescent mental disorders are common, with a substantial disease burden, yet services for young people are nationally inadequate. As services should be based on policies and (or) plans, we analyzed the availability and content of child and adolescent mental health policies and plans in all provinces and territories. ⋯ This lack of specific policy and (or) plans for child and adolescent mental health care and the variability of content in plans that exist may help explain why child and adolescent mental health services are poorly developed across Canada. We suggest that a national child and adolescent mental health policy framework be developed for Canada so that the provinces and territories may be encouraged to create or amend their current child and adolescent mental health frameworks in a manner that may enhance national cohesion and commonly addresses service needs in this population.