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It is a paradox that while youth generally represents the peak of future life potential, it is also the period of maximum vulnerability to mental ill-health. About 75% of adult mental disorders emerge before 24 years of age, 50% emerging before the age of 16, often with severe long-term consequences. Poor mental health has a significant social and economic impact, while good mental health means that an individual can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and can make a fruitful contribution to both the economy and society.

Young people who experience good mental health do better in education and have better career prospects and life outcomes. In contrast young people with poor mental health place high demands on education, social care and healthcare systems with adverse consequences that persist into adult life. The well-documented benefits of early intervention in psychosis services have led to major philosophical and conceptual shift in our understanding of interventions in a way that demands radical reform of services to meet the needs of our young people. This lecture will summarise the state of the art on the early intervention paradigm, describe evidence-based reform of mental health services in the developed world, and argue for the imperative of focussing on youth mental health. REGISTER