Rethinking how to deal with demand and supply in CAP: a European training perspective

Mental health care is suffering from a substantial gap between current service provision capacity and demand. For the generation of young doctors in psychiatry training programs today, this means they face substantial and potentially overwhelming challenges in their clinical practice. This situation calls for creative solutions in psychiatry training to prepare them best for these challenges. Perspectives of European trainers in child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) were collected and analysed following an iterative procedure in three rounds using thematic analysis of focus groups. The three iterative rounds resulted in five proposed strategies for meeting the challenges of current and future demand in CAP specifically addressing implications for CAP training. Examples were provided illustrating how these strategies could be put into daily training practices. Four strategies aimed mainly at increasing capacity: efficiency (making best use of the existing CAP workforce); consultation (task-sharing); innovation (practicing differently); and wellbeing of the CAP workforce. An additional strategy focusing on prevention and early intervention was identified to decrease demand upstream. Rethinking CAP training practices through a European perspective on the balance between capacity and demand yielded strategies for aspects of training that are not yet universally applied. Implementation is partly dependent on the larger service provision system of care while training has leverage for future capacity and quality of care.