Mental Health Care – Sensitization to Children’s Needs

first universal and binding international policy statement on the Rights of the Child, However, many children continue to experience overt or covert denial of access to essential needs such as food, shelter, health care, education, recreation and parental social support. Growth of child psychiatry in the developing world has followed the establishment of adult psychiatric services. The mere fact of paucity of services has been increasingly emphasized in various national and international fora with a view to focus greater attention on the mental health problems of children. The magnitude of mental health problems in children has not yet been recognized sufficiently by many governments and decision makers. They include not only well defined mental disorders, but also the mental health problems of children exploited for labor and sex, and children orphaned by AIDS, or forced to migrate for economic and political reasons (Faraone et al, 2002). It is a paradox that in the second half of the 20th century, indicators of social wealth and physical health amongst children worldwide have improved, while mental healt