There is an increasing effort, to identify gaps in our knowledge of the state of child mental health at the global level as well. The Atlas Project, run by the WHO,87,117 recently collected information on cultural factors associated with the burden and impairment, of mental disorders in children and adolescents in 66 countries. Although there were differences in policies and programs across low and high income countries, they found that there was a general lack of specific policies, data-gathering capacity, and continuum of care for children.87 There have also been collaborative efforts to increase awareness of child mental disorders across the world. For example, through the auspices of the World Psychiatric Association, the WHO, and the International Association of Child and Adolescent. Psychiatry and Allied Professionals, a Child Mental Health Task Force was formed to educate and develop programs to disseminate awareness of child mental health in nine different, countries around the world.124 While there is still a large amount, of change and progress that needs to be made in the area of child and adolescent mental health, studies and programs such as these arc moving the global community in the right direction.
