At the outset I need to state that my perspective on culture is that ethnicity is only one of a range of components from which individuals construct a sense of self. The book states that it has been written for professionals and parents, and that the resources it presents are evidence-based and essential reading for anyone seeking to understand and promote children and young people's mental health.
The book is easy to read and highlights the key issues. Although it does help establish that the evidence base regarding services for these children is poor, I do not think the book helps identify how we might improve child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) for children from minority groups. I struggled with the implied dichotomy between Western perspectives as being somehow all negative and minority ethnic perspectives as being positive. Although I accept that this was perhaps not the intention, the fact that it came across as such was unhelpful. I was unclear as to how the recommendations at the beginning of the book were formulated and what evidence they were based on. My fear is that this book may encourage commissioners and providers to highlight minority needs in a superficial sense, in being able to tick off check-boxes. It does not challenge services to think about service improvement as a whole or really to improve the quality of care. To a prospective reader, I would say the key message is that the evidence base regarding CAMHS and minority groups is poor. With this in mind, think about whether you would arrive at the same recommendations given such evidence, before implementing the suggested changes.
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