A national survey conducted in Lithuania indicates the tendecency, that the first contact with drugs is earlier from year to year. Also that more children and adolescents participate in substance abuse programs, who also suffer from severe conditions related with the usage of psychoactive substances. Aim of the study.Evaluating the organization of help offered in Lithuanian mental health care centres connected with the control of youth substance abuse. Objectives. 1. To overlook prevention and treatment system of youth substance abuse at primary mental heath care level. 2. To evaluate the organization of activities at mental heath care centres to control youth substance abuse. 3. To evaluate whether mental heath care centres cooperate with other institutions to provide better services for youth addicts especially to cope with related problems occuring. Methods. The analysis of Lithuanian law documents, anonymous questionaire sent to the directors of mental health care centres, statistic program SPSS 10.0 version. Results. In Lithuania prevention and treatment of substance abuse is being performed at 65 mental health care centres and is based on existing youth mental health care law. In Lithuania, no similar study has ever analyzed the situation for youth drug addicts and compared their needs for treatment and rehabilitation with offered services in mental health care centres. The survey showed that one third of the health care centres offer services that meet the... [to full text]