title: Making in-roads across the youth mental health landscape in Singapore: the Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Adolescence and early adulthood is marked by physical, emotional and psychological changes, and is the peak onset of mental disorders. Internationally, one-fifth of children and adolescents have serious mental health problems, yet services catering to them are scarce. Locally, traditional mental health services are associated with much stigma. In 2009, the Community Health Assessment Team (CHAT), a youth-focused outreach and assessment service, was set up to address service gaps and care barriers.
  
  
  METHODS
  CHAT's key offering is a free and confidential mental health assessment service to facilitate help-seeking individuals between the ages of 16 and 30 gain access to early treatment. Young persons' profile and assessment outcomes were collected and entered into a database.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between May 2009 and March 2013, CHAT received 601 referrals: 40.1% (241/601) from young persons themselves and 40.9% (246/601) from school or community counsellors. 79.2% (313/395) of those assessed had mental health issues. 61.5% (243/395) were referred to specialist clinics and 28.6% (113/395) to school or community counsellors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a steady increase in our referrals; majority are self-referred or referred from school and community counsellors. This attests to the success of our general outreach and targeted capacity-building efforts. Cognizant of young persons' distress, CHAT continues to work with downstream services for continuity of care, which also presents opportunities to consolidate and expand our network of specialist and community partners. Future directions seek to address current challenges: having a mobile platform to complement our face-to-face assessments, and building collaborations to provide holistic services for young persons.
authors.affiliation: Early Psychosis Intervention Programme (EPIP), Institute of Mental Health, Singapore.
authors.forename: Lye Yin
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Poon
authors.affiliation: Early Psychosis Intervention Programme (EPIP), Institute of Mental Health, Singapore.
authors.forename: Eugene
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tay
authors.affiliation: Early Psychosis Intervention Programme (EPIP), Institute of Mental Health, Singapore.
authors.forename: Yi Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Early Psychosis Intervention Programme (EPIP), Institute of Mental Health, Singapore.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Early Psychosis Intervention Programme (EPIP), Institute of Mental Health, Singapore.
authors.forename: Swapna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Verma
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D061345:Early Medical Intervention / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016730:Program Development; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012846:Singapore / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Singapore; community mental health service; mental health; young adult