Mental Health in Primary Care

Working together for mental well-being

Welcome to the forum for mental health in primary care

The Forum is a collaboration hosted jointly between the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of General Practitioners and held its first official meeting in January 2009. The aims of the forum are to:

• guide and promote good practice in mental health care across generalist and specialist health care services
• influence and support the work of practitioners at every level of service and in particular those at the frontline of service delivery.
• act as an expert resource to organisations with an interest in mental health
• build and support collaborative ventures between organisations
• influence national policy and strategy
• collaborate with service user and carer organisations to improve the patient’s experience of mental health care
• influence and support research, audit and quality improvement initiative

These pages bring together the activities of the Forum with other initiatives within both Colleges and provides a resource of information, leaflets, publications, other organisations, future meetings, conferences and other events.

• RCGP Forum webpage
• Latest: EAHM 2010 Conference: Primary and Secondary Care in Mental Health: a model of successful co-operation
  
  

Forum contributors/administration

• Contact the Forum
  

Activities and collaborations

Consolidation of the relationship between the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Psychiatrists

• Establishment of a Joint Educational Advisory Group.
• Production of a paper on the Darzi Review work-streams, endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Agreed series of articles for RCGP News on mental health

Work originating from a summit on the Mental Health of our Elders – Jan 2008:

• Submission of report – endorsed by RCGP
• Article for RCGP news (published)
• Editorial BJGP (published) 
• Consensus document (published) 
• A collective responsibility to act now on ageing and mental health: a consensus statement.  
  
• Joint statement on Anti-depressant prescribing 

• Fact sheet on Early Intervention in Psychosis: Provides frontline practitioners with practical advice on why important, what to look out for and what to do

• Joint report on Psychological Therapies  - RCPsych / RCGP (published June 2008)

• Management of patients with physical and psychological problems in primary care – Joint report (published Dec 08)

• Position statement on smoking and mental health (published July 08): Profiles the importance of smoking as a cause of serious health risk for people with mental disorders. Produced by Faculty of Public Health and endorsed by RCGP, RCPsych, RCN, CIEH and Mental Health Network of the NHS Confederation

• Primary care guidance on smoking and mental health (December 2008)

• Primary care guidance on early intervention on psychosis - looking after bodies as well as minds (September 2009)

• Primary Care Guidance on Debt and Mental Health - Joint guidance for frontline practitioners on why this is important, and practical considerations plus actions to take (published July 2009)

• Pharmacy guidance on smoking and mental health (February 2010)

Member organisations

• RCPsych  - Primary Care Network
• RCGP -  Mental Health Task Group / CIRC
• RCN (tbc)     
• NIMHE / CSIP
• WAMHinPC
• PRIMHE

Current activities

• Minutes of Forum meeting 8 Jan 2009

Primary care mental health mental resources

Publications Mental Health and Social Inclusion Position Statement Primary Care Mental Health  - Edited by Linda Gask, Helen Lester, Tony Kendrick and Robert Peveler   Websites RCGP and Age Concern's Take the Challenge! Final Demand - debt and mental health factsheet   Video Understanding early psychosis Carolyn Chew-Graham interview on Mental Health in Primary Care Forum

Artworks from the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research collection

Last updated 1 Feb 2010

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