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GPs' views on prioritisation of child and adolescent mental health problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Stephen M. Jones*
Affiliation:
Bethel Child and Family Centre, Mary Chapman House, Hotblack Road, Norwich, Norfolk NR2 4HN
Bindumadhava R. Bhadrinath
Affiliation:
Bethel Child and Family Centre, Mary Chapman House, Hotblack Road, Norwich, Norfolk NR2 4HN
*
Correspondence
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Abstract

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The demand for child and adolescent psychiatric services outstrips the supply of resources, leaving a large unmet demand. One way of managing this is to prioritise referrals. A sample of Norfolk general practitioners were interviewed face to face. They were asked to prioritise child and adolescent mental health problems that might present to them in the surgery. A high response rate was obtained. Anxiety provoking problems were considered to be of the highest priority. Service provision and prioritisation should take cognisance of the wishes of referrers themselves. Mental health care training priorities in general practice include substance misuse and psychiatric emergencies.

Type
Original papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

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