Table 5 Specificity of CAP training versus other specialties

Specific skills

 Ability to contain a wide range of emotions

“…context were difficult… it also taught me a lot—how to prioritize, (…) evaluating complex information quickly (…), consult with colleagues and seniors in a timely manner, (…)'containing' anxiety, and managing highly anxiety provoking situations (…) creating'good enough' collaboration with patients and families (…)” (Europe)

“… preparing trainees to gain skills in areas of emotional intelligence, compassionate training,… will assist them in meeting the challenge in the future” (Asia)

 Specific interview skills

“… strange position of being experienced and inexperienced at the same time (…), I had to examine a 7-year-old boy in a playroom, I did not have a clue how to approach this. (…)” (Europe)

 Psycho-therapeutic skills

“What I think is a downside that we only study the basics of psychotherapy for half a year during our training. Since psychotherapy has a primary role among the therapeutic tools in child and adolescent psychiatry, I think that much more emphasis should be placed on teaching psychotherapy”. (Europe)

“There is an important disagreement… regarding the need for psychotherapeutic knowledge and its use in this field. Many, especially older ones agree it is of crucial importance because it represents a psychiatrist's main working domain, while others, especially younger ones build the core concept of their work on… the guidance of a therapeutic team around a patient and his/her family, of which a licensed psychotherapist (as a separate profession) is (or should be) an important part.” (Europe)

 Key role of supervision

“Overall, it was a good experience… the safety of our patients because of lots of opportunities to discuss them with our mentors—trainers and… supervision” (Europe)

“It is not a matter of teaching technical skills but a true interaction that helps the therapeutic relationship between the trainee and the patient (through supervision…).” (Europe)

 A professional identity combining both medicine and psychotherapy tradition

“It’s a very difficult situation with limited acknowledgment by other professions on the one hand, and clinical psychologists as well as regular psychiatrists working in the CAP field on the other (so why is there a CAP training when there are others invading the field?).” (Oceania)

 Work deeply grounded in a multi-disciplinary systems approach

“Another aspect of training that I appreciate is being part of true multi-disciplinary team working—I have learned so much from co-working cases with family therapists, art therapists and psychologists among others.” (Oceania)

“There is also little training in community psychiatry, there is no experience working with schools or parents during training.” (South-America)

Social-cultural dimension

 A strong influence of social-cultural aspects on mental health

“As one's experience of the world is tightly bound to one's cultural experience, mental health treatment should take this into account. (…) Ability to access such care may further be limited by cultural stigma towards mental health.” (North-America)

“I work and train doctors in an isolated area of the country… The experience makes the trainees some of the most skilled in the country in working with Indigenous youth. On the other hand, the trainees miss out on quality experiences in some of the more common… contexts…” (Australia)

 Access to mental health service provision

“… to change is the stigma associated with seeking professional help for mental health difficulties, rather than relying on religious healers, which is a common approach by many” (Asia)

“National Health authorities… still are not convinced that child mental health needs to be one of their main concerns… All departments are in adult psychiatric hospitals and are considered by official managers as attached units” (Africa)