Improving the mental health of young children

The CHPC’s work complements the mission of the FHS to integrate research and policy for the advancement of public and population health locally, nationally and globally. [...] The Child and Youth Mental Health Team at BC’s Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) and the Canadian Population Health Initiative also provided support for developing the ideas expressed here. [...] The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as a state of social and emotional wellbeing, not merely the absence of disorder.1. [...] Mental health and disorder nevertheless originate in early childhood, making this the best possible time to intervene for the benefit of both children and the population as a whole. [...] Yet the children’s mental health field has also yet to incorporate emerging evidence on the social determinants of health in populations, likely particularly important in the causation of more “socially” based (and more common) disorders such as conduct disorder, anxiety and depression.