ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: This study was done to evaluate present status of child and adolescent psychiatric practice in the view of medical consumers. Help seeking behaviour process after recognizing their children's problem, satisfaction with psychiatric service, and difficult problems during practice were evaluated, and variable factors affecting them were analysed. METHODS: Through 10 multi-center point epidemiologic survey, 540 parents and their psychiatrists were involved in this study by structured questionnaire. RESULTS: Above 70% of subjects reported positive response to psychiatric service. The barrier to psychiatric service were different by subjects' age. In children, parents' inability to identify severity of children's problem and proper management place were major reason. However in adolescent, children's lack of desire to receive help and parents' worry about stigma related to receiving help were major barrier to psychiatric service. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest the importance of interagency collaboration and education services. Researchers and policymakers should consider strategies to reduce barrier related to perceptions of mental health problems and services, especially in adolescents.
