Article Journal of Child Health Care 2022, Vol. 0(0) 1–15 © The Author(s) 2022 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/13674935221146381 journals.sagepub.com/home/chc Patterns of service provision in child and adolescent mental health care in Australia Luis Salvador-Carulla 1,2 , Mary Anne Furst 1 , Hossein Tabatabaei-Jafari 1 , John Mendoza 3 , Denise Riordan 4 , Elizabeth Moore 5 , Daniel Rock 6 , Lauren Anthes 7 , Nasser Bagheri 1 , and Jose A. Salinas-Perez 1,8  Abstract Standard description of local care provision is essential for evidence-informed planning. This study aimed to map and compare the availability and diversity of current mental health service provision for children and adolescents in Australia. We used a standardised service classification instrument, the Description and Evaluation of Services and DirectoriEs (DESDE) tool, to describe service availability in eight urban and two rural health districts in Australia. The pattern of care was compared with that available for other age groups in Australia. Outpatient care was found to be the most common type of service provision, comprising 212 (81.2%) of all services identified. Hospital care (acute and non-acute) was more available in urban than in rural areas (20 services [9.7%] vs 1 [1.8%]). The level of diversity in the types of care available for children and adolescents was lower than that for the general adult population, but slightly higher than that for older people in the same areas. Standardised comparison of the pattern of care across regions reduces ambiguity in service description and classification, enables gap analysis and can inform policy and planning. 1 Health Research Institute, Health College, University of Canberra, Australia 2 Menzies Centre for Health. Faculty of Medicine and Health. University of Sydney, Australia 3 Mental Health & Prison Health, Central Adelaide Local Health Network, SA, Australia ; Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, Australia 4 Canberra Health Services, Canberra Australia; Centre for Mental health research, Canberra, Australia 5 Office for Mental Health and Wellbeing Australian Capital Territory, Canberra, Australia 6 WA Primary Health Alliance, Perth, Western Australia & Discipline of Psychiatry, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia 7 Capital Health Network, Deakin West, ACT, Australia 8 Department of Quantitative Methods, Universidad Loyola Andaluc´ıa, Sevilla, Spain Corresponding author: Hossein Tabatabaei-Jafari, Health Research Institute, Health College, University of Canberra, 63 Eggleston Road, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia. Email: hossein.tabatabaeijafari@canberra.edu.au