In a landmark study set to reshape the landscape of mental health services in Singapore, researchers from the SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute (SDGHI), backed by the Octava Foundation, have conducted an extensive mapping of children’s mental health programs across the nation. The report, titled Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing in Singapore: A Landscape Brief, delves into the intricate network of support systems designed to tackle mental health challenges among the younger population, revealing both promising advancements and critical areas that warrant urgent enhancement.
Singapore is currently confronting a significant mental health challenge, with disorders within children, adolescents, and young adults accounting for nearly 28.2% of the disease burden in these age groups. This stark statistic underscores the urgency of a well-coordinated, robust mental health ecosystem tailored specifically to the developmental needs of children. The SDGHI study’s comprehensive overview included an analysis of 43 programs originating from public sectors, private entities, and civil society organizations, highlighting the country’s dedication to fostering an accessible and inclusive mental health landscape.
The research identifies a vibrant, yet fragmented, mental health ecosystem with laudable strengths, particularly in how many initiatives fuse mental health promotion, prevention, and literacy in educational settings. Schools and community centers serve as pivotal sites for intervention, embedding mental health awareness and support deeply within everyday environments. However, the study emphasizes the critical necessity of enhancing these programs’ coordination, advocating for smoother integration and continuity of care between services to avoid gaps that could jeopardize effective delivery.
One of the paramount challenges detailed in the report is securing sustainable, multi-year funding streams. The current funding models tend to be short-term and fragmented, constraining program scalability, workforce development, and rigorous impact evaluation. Without stable financial backing, programmes cannot sustain the quality of care or expand sufficiently to meet rising demands. Moreover, such funding deficiencies impede comprehensive assessments that are vital for demonstrating efficacy and informing policy development.
The report further highlights a troubling shortage in the specialised child mental health workforce. This deficit hampers service quality and limits access to expert care when it is most needed. Expanding workforce capacity through targeted training, effective upskilling, and talent retention strategies is essential to keep pace with service demand. Innovative models, including task-sharing approaches under close supervision, are recommended to extend the reach of mental health professionals while maintaining care standards.
Another pivotal insight revolves around engagement barriers that restrict participation in mental health programmes. Time constraints often prevent families from fully benefitting, yet when programs are designed around practical life skills, participation markedly improves. This finding points to the necessity of making mental health interventions more accessible, relatable, and convenient for children and their caregivers, integrating these supports seamlessly into family routines.
Critical to program success is the active involvement of caregivers and teachers, whose direct participation serves as a powerful lever for efficacy. By equipping those closest to children with knowledge and tools, programs benefit from consistent reinforcement beyond formal sessions. Embedding caregivers and educators in the mental health framework helps ensure tailored support sensitive to each child’s unique context.
While the ecosystem demonstrates solid infrastructure for school-aged youth, the report draws attention to a disproportionate focus that sidelines children aged 3 to 5 years old—a vital developmental window for establishing lifelong mental well-being. Early childhood interventions remain insufficiently developed, with a notable gap in practical social-emotional tools provided to parents and early educators. Addressing this under-served cohort could prevent escalation of issues and foster resilience from the earliest stages of life.
Inclusivity is another dimension examined, with many programmes adapting content for diverse cultural, linguistic, and ability differences. However, the scaling of such inclusive practices remains a work in progress, especially for young children in the critical early years. The study calls for broader expansion of culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate services to realize truly equitable mental health access across all demographic groups.
The methodology underpinning this seminal report is equally robust. Employing a mixed-methods design, the researchers utilized a semi-structured survey to map out the 43 programs, conducted 32 in-depth interviews with program leaders and mental health practitioners, and convened a workshop with 47 stakeholders from various sectors including government, healthcare, education, and community organizations. The work aligns meticulously with the WHO–UNICEF Service Guidance on the Mental Health of Children and Young People (2024) and Singapore’s own National Mental Health and Well-being Strategy (2023), ensuring both global best practices and national priorities are woven into the analysis.
From the findings emerge a set of strategic recommendations designed to bolster Singapore’s children’s mental health ecosystem significantly. Paramount among these is the call for complementing existing grant-based support with multiyear funding frameworks capable of sustaining service delivery, nurturing expert teams, and scaling promising pilot initiatives to a national level. Parallel to funding expansion, workforce capacity building through comprehensive training, cross-sector upskilling, and robust retention plans is urged to meet escalating demand with competence.
The report also strongly advocates for enhancing sector coordination. Creating platforms that facilitate knowledge exchange, streamlined referrals, and collaborative design involves all stakeholders—from healthcare providers and educators to community organizations and policymakers—thus fostering a cohesive, child-centred service network. Integrating children’s voices within programme design and evaluation is crucial, shifting away from protection-only paradigms toward models that prioritize child agency, ensuring young people actively participate in shaping their mental health journeys.
The anticipated impact of implementing these recommendations extends beyond individual program improvements. By cultivating a unified, societal response to childhood mental health, Singapore can dismantle systemic barriers such as stigma and fragmented care pathways. Professor Anne-Claire Stona, lead of the Global Mental Health Programme at SDGHI, underscores the transformative potential of collective action, framing the report as a data-backed blueprint for inclusive, sustainable reform capable of helping every child thrive.
Echoing these sentiments, Raman Sidhu, CEO of the Octava Foundation, reiterates the foundation’s commitment to preventive and promotive mental health strategies. He emphasizes the critical need for sustained investments in locally tailored, evidence-informed programs that build strong mental health capacities during formative years, which ultimately lay the groundwork for resilient societies.
In summary, Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing in Singapore: A Landscape Brief offers a rigorous, data-driven exploration of Singapore’s mental health ecosystem for its youngest citizens. Beyond mapping and analysis, it provides a strategic framework to address funding inadequacies, workforce limitations, gaps in service coordination, and barriers to participation, with particular attention to the underserved early childhood population. As Singapore continues to evolve into a global hub for innovation and inclusivity, the insights from this comprehensive report lay a critical foundation for building a future where mental health support is seamlessly integrated, sustainably funded, culturally sensitive, and universally accessible for all children.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing in Singapore: A Landscape Brief
News Publication Date: 28 October 2025
Web References: https://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/docs/librariesprovider22/default-document-library/gmh_octava-report-2025.pdf?sfvrsn=5ac6032b_1
Image Credits: Duke-NUS Medical School
Keywords: Public health, Health care
