The Management of Mental Health in Primary and Secondary Care

Abstract

The effective management of mental illness in primary care relies, in large part, on the knowledge and skills of the primary health care team, and their links with secondary care mental health professionals. According to national mental health policy, most mental health problems can, and should, be managed within primary care, whilst people with serious mental illness may require input from specialist secondary services. This chapter describes a series of educational initiatives for primary care doctors and nurses in Bedfordshire aimed at improving primary care psychiatry, and joint-working at the interface between community mental health teams and primary care teams. In 1999, this work was awarded Beacon status by the Department of Health. The educational initiatives were carried out by a team consisting of a doctor (MA), with a background in general practice who had opted to become a staff psychiatrist in the local community Trust, and a lead community mental health nurse (JB). The chapter is essentially a description of how and why the project evolved and, hopefully, it will give guidance on how to apply the same principles in other parts of the country.