LAHORE, March 22: Satisfactory facilities are not available for the mental health care and treatment of various psychiatric disorders in the children. This was stated by King Edward Medical University’s professor emeritus Dr Khalida Tareen while talking to a group of teachers, psychologists and doctors here on Wednesday.

Saying that children under 18 years of age comprise around 50 per cent of court’s population, Dr Khalida said the provision of better health services for children was an urgent need of the day so that early identification of mental health problems was made possible and treatment provided.

She stressed that doctors, psychologists as well as parents should have adequate information about mental health problems in children.

In this connection, she said, a one-day workshop would be organised at the Special Education and Training Centre, Johar Town, on April 4. Two child psychiatrists from the UK would talk about autism and its related behaviour problems and answer various questions from parents, teachers and doctors, she said.