This opinion piece invites a professional debate on the organisation of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) occupational therapy in order to deliver the modernisation agenda while sustaining its excellent record for practice development and innovation. In the face of such challenges, there needs to be reflection on whether CAMHS occupational therapy is ‘poised’ or ‘paused’ for action and what strategies would tackle existing challenges and support its growth. The piece puts forward a potential vision involving occupation-focused theory and developing academic and practice partnerships in order to ensure that children with mental health difficulties access occupation-focused, theory-driven and evidence-based occupational therapy services.
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