Abstract
Assessment in child and adolescent psychiatry is the key to good practice. After reviewing practice in the UK and USA, the Victorian Framework for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Delivery stated a general assessment and presentation of feedback to the family may generally be completed within three hours by a welltrained specialist clinician. For many years, the Victorian Postgraduate Child Psychiatry Training Program has employed a four session assessment model in its Developmental Psychiatry Course. In a recent survey, the four session assessment model was found to be the norm of practice in Metropolitan Victoria.