The targets Dr McCulloch is referring to are for every region in England to have a comprehensive child and adolescent mental health service, or CAMHS, in place by the end of 2006. The Government stated its aim of offering a four-tier service, ranging from community-based preventive work to inpatient services for the most seriously ill, in Getting the right start: The National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services more than three years ago.
Postcode lottery
But a government report due out this month is expected to show that although progress has been made, there is still some way to go. This is a view shared by Dr McCulloch. "There is no common structure and the postcode lottery is unbelievable," he says. "Where I live in south London you can get treatment for moderate problems quite easily and there are exciting examples of practice in places such as Plymouth, Southampton and Westminster, but in other places it's not much different to the child guidance clinics of the 1960s."
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