Mental Health Systems and Care in Children and Adolescents: A Comparative Analysis of India and the United Kingdom

This research paper utilizes a qualitative comparative analysis to compare mental health policies and systems across the United Kingdom and India. It focuses on a demographic of children and adolescents, observing how access to treatment and care for OCD differs across these two countries. By examining existing statistics, academic papers, and reports, the research concluded that in the United Kingdom, access to and treatment for children with OCD is constrained due to long referral and waiting processes through the UK's NHS system. In India, the main barriers to treatment and access were lack of healthcare professionals, infrastructure, and significant stigma around mental health. For both the UK and India, there were evident implementation gaps; policies seemed fine and functional on paper, but were not actually being implemented and enacted in beneficial and sustainable ways.