Citation

Kleinjan M, Jansen DEMC, van den Essenburg M. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022; 19(18): e11499.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph191811499

PMID

36141777

Abstract

The Netherlands is missing nationally representative data on child and adolescent mental health, e.g., on prevalence, course, and consequences of psychological disorders and mental health care utilization. Researchers and policy makers also lack a basic data infrastructure that is necessary to provide timely and reliable data crucial for benchmarking and informed decision making. In this article, we describe the necessity for a clear and well-organized overview of data on youth mental health and mental health care. We look back on three key moments in time to illustrate the breadth of the desire for data. Barriers in collecting structured, national data on a frequent basis are discussed, and several recommendations are provided of what is needed to move towards a data ecosystem that can help us to track the development and mental well-being of all children and youth and the impact of the care they receive.

Language: en

Keywords

mental health; youth; data; infrastructure; population data; registration data