Main description:

Primary care is usually the first port of call for people with mental health problems and plays an increasingly important role in developing and delivering mental health services. Indeed, 90 per cent of all patients with mental health problems (including 30-50 per cent of all those with serious mental illness) only use primary care services. How can practitioners in primary care best respond to psychiatric presentations? In this book, internationally respected authors provide a conceptual background and dispense practical advice for the clinician. They discuss ways of improving joint working between primary and secondary care, as well as issues affecting the professional development of all practitioners within primary care teams. The key features include: practical advice; focus on improving services; critical analysis of the emerging evidence; a user-centred approach, emphasising recovery; and educational strategies to develop knowledge and skills of the primary care team.

Contents:

Part I: Conceptual basis and overarching themes. Chapter 1, What is primary care mental health? Chapter 2, Mental health and primary healthcare: an international policy perspective. Chapter 3, The epidemiology of mental illness. Chapter 4, A sociological view of mental health and illness. Chapter 5, The service user perspective. Chapter 6, Low- and middle-income countries. Chapter 7, Diagnosis and classifi cation of mental illness: a view from primary care. Part II: Clinical issues. Chapter 8, Depression. Chapter 9, Suicide and self-harm. Chapter 10, Anxiety Chapter 11, Medically unexplained symptoms. Chapter 12, Mental health problems in older people. Chapter 13, Perinatal mental health. Chapter 14, Child and adolescent mental health. Chapter 15, Psychosis. Chapter 16, Emergencies in primary care. Chapter 17, Substance misuse. Chapter 18, Management of alcohol problems. Chapter 19, Eating disorders. Chapter 20, Physical health of people with mental illness. Chapter 21, Ethnic minorities. Chapter 22, Asylum seekers and refugees. Chapter 23, Sexual problems. Part III: Policy and practice. Chapter 24, Mental health promotion. Chapter 25, Improving the quality of primary care mental health: what does and does not work? Chapter 26, Psychological treatments. Chapter 27, Collaborative care and stepped care: innovations for common mental disorders. Chapter 28, The role of practice nurses. Part IV: Reflective practice. Chapter 29, Teaching and learning about mental health. Chapter 30, Undertaking mental health research in primary care. Chapter 31, Individual treatment decisions: guidelines and clinical judgement. Chapter 32, Self and others: the mental healthcare of the practitioner. Epilogue: Racing pigeons and rolling rocks: reflections on complex problems in primary care.