Reaching the Hard to Reach

Supporting Mental Health Services for Children & Young People

Since 1992, John Lyon's Charity has distributed over £1.5million toward programmes for disturbed children and young people. Funding has been deployed in a range of ways, from long-term individual psychotherapy to counselling in schools and family therapy. The purpose of this seminar was to inform the Charity's policy against the background of the National Service Framework for Children which lays out the future direction of children's and adolescent mental health services.

• Where is funding best targeted?
• Is there a role for the voluntary sector in pioneering initiatives that aim to reach those groups of young people who fail to access statutory services?

Participants in the seminar, held at the Anna Freud Centre included leading figures from Statutory Health Services, Professor Peter Fonagy of University College London and the Anna Freud Centre, Dr Geoffrey Baruch from the Brandon Centre and other practitioners who have been supported by the Charity, many of whom have international reputations.

The seminar was chaired by former Chairman of John Lyon's Charity and member of the Grants Committee, Professor Michael Edwards, who has maintained a special interest in this area of support.

Reaching the Hard to Reach: Evidence-based Funding Priorities, a bookbased on the findings of the conference is available from John Wiley and Sons ISBN 978-0-470-01941-2.