Inpatient acute care or residential rehabilitation for a small subset of children would always be necessary but this should be the exception, health minister Godfrey Farrugia said today.

Addressing a Mental Health Services Centre, the minister said a caring environment had to be ensured for these children, providing them with a home away from home scenario.

"We must endeavour to do this with the least disruption to children’s lives as possible.

"The rightful place and setting to provide such acute mental health care to children and adolescents is not our acute hospital setting but an appropriate equipped child psychiatry facility which can provide all round care to our dear patients and their immediate family," he said

Dr Farrugia said that children and adolescents had to be listened to and action had to be taken on the messages they sought to communicate.

The government, he said, had to invest in initiatives which promoted mental well-being from an early age.

"We must introduce early screening programmes in our kindergartens and primary schools to identify psychological, behavioural and possibly psychiatric problems... We require timely and effective referral services both at primary as well as at secondary health levels," he said.

Dr Farrugia said that a harsher approach to bullying also had to be adopted, school drop-outs identified and outreach programmes aimed at providing these children and adolescents with life skills and employability invested in.

At-risk households had to be identified and solutions tried and tested elsewhere had to be explored.