TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to describe mental health-related contact with educational professionals amongst children in the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey (BCAMHS) 2004. Design/methodology/approach– BCAMHS 2004 was a community-based survey of 5,325 children aged 5-16, with follow-up in 2007. This paper reports the percentage of children with a psychiatric disorder that had mental health-related contact with education professionals (categorised as teachers or specialist education services) and the percentage with specific types of psychiatric disorders amongst those contacting services. Findings– Two-thirds (66.1 per cent, 95 per cent CI: 62.4-69.8 per cent) of children with a psychiatric disorder had contact with a teacher regarding their mental health and 31.1 per cent (95 per cent CI: 27.5-34.7 per cent) had contact with special education either in 2004 or 2007, or both. Over half of children reporting special education contact (55.1 per cent, 95 per cent CI: 50.0-60.2 per cent) and almost a third reporting teacher contact in relation to mental health (32.1 per cent, 95 per cent CI: 29.7-34.6 per cent) met criteria for a psychiatric disorder. Practical implications– Many children in contact with education professionals regarding mental health experienced clinical levels of difficulty. Training is needed to ensure that contact leads to prompt intervention and referral if necessary. Originality/value– This is the first paper to report on mental health-related service contact with education professionals in the 2004 BCAMHS survey along with its 2007 follow-up. It identifies high levels of teacher contact which represent challenges in supporting staff with training, resources and access to mental health services. VL - 10 IS - 3 SN - 1755-6228 DO - 10.1108/JMHTEP-02-2015-0007 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-02-2015-0007 AU - Newlove-Delgado Tamsin AU - Moore Darren AU - Ukoumunne Obioha C AU - Stein Ken AU - Ford Tamsin PY - 2015 Y1 - 2015/01/01 TI - Mental health related contact with education professionals in the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey 2004 T2 - The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 159 EP - 169 Y2 - 2024/04/20 ER -