Global child and adolescent mental health: The orphan of development assistance for health

points• One-quarter of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for mental disorders and substance abuse is borne by those 24 years old or younger, the age group that accounted for more than 40% of the world population.Using the aid activities database from the Creditor Reporting System (CRS), we estimated the level of development assistance for child and adolescent mental health (DAMH_CA) in 132 developing countries between 2007 and 2015.• The total amount of DAMH_CA with a primary target on child and adolescent mental health was US$190.3 million over the 8 years, accounting for 12.5% of total development assistance for mental health (DAMH) and 0.1% of development assistance for health (DAH).• The largest investments in DAMH_CA over this 8-year period were disbursed to the humanitarian assistance sector for children and adolescents in disasters or conflicts (US $77.2 million [41% of DAMH_CA]), followed by the sector of government and civil services (US$58.6 million [31%]), the health sector (US$38.0 million [20%]), and the education sector (US$15.6 million [8%]).• Donors invested little in child and adolescent mental health, in both absolute amount and fraction.• The donor community should substantially increase DAMH_CA to establish and enhance the capacity for delivering mental health care to this demographic group. BackgroundMore than 40% of the world population is 24 years old or younger, the vast majority of whom live in low-and lower middle-income countries [1].Globally, a quarter of disability-adjusted