The clinical psychologist in primary care.

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents some aspects of the potential contribution of clinical psychologists to the work of general practitioners and reviews the recent reporting on this. It further surveys 42 consecutive referrals to a clinical psychologist by a number of general practitioners in the North of Scotland which are thought to be representative of a general trend throughout the UK as a whole, both in terms of the nature of the referrals and of the clinical psychological services given in response to these. The lack of overlap of these services with others, such as psychiatric, paediatric, and educational psychological is noted. The interaction between primary care and clinical psychological services here reported is one which has implications for other social agencies like social work and community health services, and is perhaps setting a pattern for longer term developments nationally. Some of the implications of such a development are discussed.