Lessons from the Twentieth Century for child and adolescent mental health practice in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

A review of the past one hundred and fifty years of child and adolescent mental health practice, in five three-decade periods, is presented to background the upcoming developments in this century, while also documenting what has been of value as the field moves forward. There has been much loss of corporate memory as we have moved into the Twenty-First Century. Professional amnesia is a condition with grave consequences. The final list of twenty lessons provide a view as to how these lessons can be absorbed into clinical training and into clinical practice. This summary is necessarily brief, but the references will provoke enquiry and the learning of old ideas.