Malta ACAMH Branch

Malta 2026

Our motto: Because childhood shapes everything.

ACAMH Malta promotes evidence based understanding and best practice in child and adolescent mental health. Our mission is to advance child and adolescent mental health in Malta through research informed practice, dissemination, and training. Our vision is to be the leading national organisation for interdisciplinary research, knowledge exchange, and professional development in this field.

We are an active professional community of clinicians, researchers, educators, and students committed to improving outcomes for children and young people. Through conferences, lectures, workshops, and specialised training delivered across the Maltese Islands, we translate research into meaningful, evidence based practice and strengthen the local workforce.

Our initiatives include the annual Healthy Body, Healthy Mind event, mental health literacy programmes in schools, and targeted training for professionals, including educating and working with police and prison officers. Together, these efforts support awareness, early intervention, and improved service standards nationwide.

Our work is guided by dedicated subcommittees:

Events Subcommittee

  • The Events Subcommittee is one of our most long-standing and active groups, promoting high standards of evidence-based practice in CAMHS in Malta through our AGM, conferences, and expert-led workshops on current and emerging issues. We also support community engagement through initiatives such as the Run for Mental Wellbeing with Pembroke Athleta, promoting mental health awareness and healthy lifestyles.

Media and PR Subcommittee

  • The Media and PR Subcommittee is dedicated to increasing the visibility of ACAMH Malta across the island. We promote mental health awareness, encourage open conversations, and reinforce the message that “It’s okay not to be okay.”
  • We are developing a national campaign to extend our reach, while also capturing key moments through photos and video reels as ACAMH Malta continues to grow.

Mental Health Literacy Subcommittee

  • The Mental Health Literacy Subcommittee is dedicated to strengthening the understanding and awareness of child and adolescent mental health across the Maltese islands. Its aim is to equip educators, professionals, and the wider community with the knowledge and confidence to recognise early signs of difficulty, respond appropriately, and promote positive mental wellbeing.
  • We are currently piloting a project in collaboration with a few schools in Malta, delivering mental health literacy training to educators using the Kutcher model. This evidence-based framework enhances knowledge, reduces stigma, and promotes effective help-seeking, supporting schools to create informed, responsive, and mentally healthy environments.

Forensic Subcommittee

  • Established in 2025, the Forensic Subcommittee is one of our newest initiatives, providing specialised training for police officers and prison staff working with young people and high-risk offenders.
  • Our programmes focus on trauma-informed practice, including the links between trauma and crime, victimisation, re-traumatisation, and vicarious trauma. The aim is to equip professionals with practical skills to improve outcomes for young people, support victims, and strengthen community wellbeing.

Social Policy Subcommittee

Education and Research Subcommittee

  • Education is a central pillar of ACAMH Malta. As we grow, we aim to establish an Education and Research Subcommittee to strengthen the link between research, training, and practice.
  • Our vision is to create a national platform for Maltese researchers to share findings and collaborate, fostering local evidence in child and adolescent mental health and ensuring practice remains current and responsive to the needs of young people and families in Malta.

Family Subcommittee

  • The Family Subcommittee is a newly proposed initiative aimed at strengthening the voice and involvement of parents and caregivers within ACAMH Malta.
  • Through psychoeducation, accessible resources, and dialogue between families and professionals, it seeks to promote informed, collaborative, and stigma-free conversations on child and adolescent mental health, ensuring family perspectives remain central to service development and national discussions in Malta.

ACAMH Malta continues to grow, and we welcome expressions of interest from individuals who wish to contribute as subcommittee members.

Social Media

Follow ACAMH Malta on social media to stay updated on our latest events and initiatives: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

  • Meet the branch
    andrea

    Dr. Andrea Saliba

    I am an Executive Member of the ACAMH Branch Higher. As a Specialty Trainee Psychiatrist at Mount Carmel Hospital I work towards the improvement of both clinical and academic standards of psychiatry with a special interest in youth mental health. I have participated in a number of research studies and audits relating to youth mental health, and presented work at national and international conferences. For information about our Branch please email me andrea.a.saliba@gmail.com

  • Key Objectives

    Through this initiative we aspire to improve clinical standards of practice in child services in Malta. We aim to do this through education and scientific research in child and adolescent mental health. We plan to focus on services which require further development locally such as perinatal and infant psychiatry. This will offer opportunities for local and foreign research to be presented in the conferences which will be organised.

    We do this by

    • advancing all matters concerning the mental health and development of children, young people and their families
    • disseminating scientific research and scholarship
    • interpreting research and its applicability to evidence based clinical practice
    • facilitating professional development.
  • The moral environment we create

    Blog by ACAMH Malta

    The moral health of our society matters to the mental health of our children.

    In the aftermath of the trial concerning the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta is confronting difficult questions about justice, accountability, trust and the values we uphold as a society.

    Whatever an individual’s interpretation of the verdict and its wider implications, children and adolescents are watching closely. They observe not only what happens in courtrooms and public institutions, but also how adults respond: The language we use, the anger we amplify, the standards we follow and the values we defend.

    Children form their understanding of fairness, authority, safety and responsibility through the behaviour of adults and the dependability of institutions. When they repeatedly encounter allegations of serious wrongdoing, public hostility, social division or an apparent absence of accountability, this may cause moral distress. At its most severe, it can contribute to what psychiatrists have described as moral injury: The psychological harm that may arise when fundamental expectations of what is right, just and trustworthy are profoundly violated.

    This is not simply a political issue. It is a child and adolescent mental-health issue.

    In 2017, psychiatrist Prof Walter Busuttil wrote in the Times of Malta about moral injury and the psychological consequences that can follow when people feel betrayed by the systems and values meant to protect them. Two years later, the Maltese Association of Psychiatry called for the urgent re-establishment of normality and stability, warning of the wider mental and emotional impact of institutional instability. That statement recognised that a stable, trustworthy society is not an abstract ideal, but an essential foundation for psychological wellbeing.

    For a child, a family functions as a “secure base” and a dependable environment from which they can explore, learn, take healthy risks and return for support. Societies and institutions serve a related role. When public life feels unpredictable, unsafe or morally confusing, young people may struggle to know which values are reliable and whether the adults responsible for leading them can be trusted.

    The consequences may not always be immediately visible. They can emerge as cynicism, anger, withdrawal, hopelessness, disengagement from civic life, or an increasing belief that honesty and fairness do not matter. Young people may become more vulnerable to polarisation, hostility and the attraction of simplistic answers. A generation that loses confidence in its moral anchors is a generation placed at risk.

    This does not mean shielding children from reality or preventing legitimate disagreement. Young people need truthful, age-appropriate conversations about injustice, power and social conflict. They need adults who can acknowledge uncertainty without becoming dismissive, and who can manage disagreement without contempt, aggression or vulgarity.

    Rebuilding trust requires more than legal outcomes alone. It requires transparency, accountability and consistent leadership through goverenece. It also requires each of us parents, educators, clinicians, journalists, public officials and community leaders to model integrity in everyday life.

    ACAMH Malta works to advance child and adolescent mental health through evidence-based research, education and multidisciplinary practice. We therefore urge those with influence in Maltese society to consider the example being set for the next generation.

    It takes a village to raise a child. The moral health of that village matters.

    A society rooted in integrity, respect and accountability gives young people something invaluable: The confidence that the world around them can be trusted. A healthier society today helps lay the foundations for a healthier generation tomorrow.