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Mental health organisations last week demonstrated their support for Community Care's campaign for better mental health services for children and young people.

Ruth Lesirge, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation, told the launch of the Changing Minds campaign that it identified "a clear imperative for action". In most cases young people had no choice in how they are helped, and what they were offered was often unsuitable, she said.

"The most effective way of meeting the mental health needs of young people is for all of us to listen to what young people have to say," she said.

This point was brought home by Valerie Chapman, whose 19-year-old son has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. She spoke of her frustration with the system.

"The question I'm still asking is why didn't people believe me. Between [the ages of] 10 and 17, I have lost count of how many psychologists and psychiatrists my son saw. But nobody did anything."

Chapman added that trying to get more help for her son had cost her and her husband a quarter of their income over the past four years.

Sue Bailey, chairperson of the Royal College of Psychiatrist's faculty of child and adolescent psychiatry, stressed that mental health was "everybody's business" and that further work was needed to address the stigma of mental illness. "To have the resources, there has to be a public will that this is a priority," she said.

She added that there needed to be a system that could detect a child's vulnerability to mental illness.

Community Care's editor Polly Neate described the long-term consequence of untreated mental health problems in children as "frightening" and called on organisations to join in the call for action.

"There is evidence that we are pushing at a door that is not locked," Neate said. "This campaign is intended to put a foot firmly in that door and ensure that the mental well-being of children and young people gains its rightful place in strategy, funding, service development, guidance, and practice."

Director of Young Minds Peter Wilson described the campaign as "another major surge forward" that would help to raise awareness of children's mental health. He said that young people wanted improved access, better information and respect. "Everyone in this business needs to be better trained," he added.