Organisation of care: Primary care organizational responses to mental health needs

Abstract

This paper considers a number of factors that give renewed prominence to organizational dimensions in developing primary care responses to mental health needs as the context for a new collaborative research programme in this area. A typology is proposed to describe a range of organizational responses to mental health need in primary care. This serves to draw attention to the fact that research and practice and service development have tended to focus on organizational arrangements that clarify the relationship between primary care and secondary mental health services and relate largely to the care and treatment of people with severe and enduring mental illness, with considerably less exploration of other forms of organisational responses for different types of mental health need. The authors conclude by suggesting the need to develop greater understanding of lay perceptions of mental health and mental health needs, along with further exploration of help-seeking behaviour and of factors that promote self-care.