To ensure social and emotional well-being for all children, an important step involves adopting a population mental health strategy. Such a strategy has four crucial pillars. First, policy-makers can address social determinants of mental health — for example, by implementing programs that reduce the number of children living with socio-economic disadvantage. Second, programs can be implemented to prevent disorders before they develop. Third, for those with mental disorders, timely and effective treatments can enable children to recover and resume their progress on positive developmental trajectories. The fourth pillar involves monitoring the success of these efforts and then making any needed adjustments to better address determinants, prevent disorders and provide treatments.

For more information, see Vol. 16, No. 3 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.