Integrated Care of Seriously Mentally Ill People Within a General Practice Setting
| Date | 01 September 1996 |
| Pages | 21-23 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322199600028 |
| Published date | 01 September 1996 |
| Author | Kenneth Lawton |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
The Mental Health Review 1:3 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 1996 21
Kenneth Lawton, FRCGP,General Practitioner
THE GREAT WESTERN ROAD MEDICAL GROUP, ABERDEEN
Introduction to the practice
The Great Western Road Medical Group is a
six-doctor practice in Aberdeen, with a list
size of 11,000. It is a teaching and training
practice and a Scottish second-wave fundholding
practice. The practice serves mainly an urban and
suburban population. Aberdeen and Grampian
remain remarkably unscathed by the recession and
protected by the still buoyant oil-based economy.
Grampian’s population is split into two broad group-
ings: the city population of approximately 175,000;
and the rural counties catchment of approximately
75,000.
The impact of hospital discharges
Since 1989, Grampian Health Care Trust, in line
with Health Boardand Scottish Office policy,were
required to run down long-stay hospitals throughout
Grampian. Many patients weredischarged into the
community and found homes within a number of
mental health projects run by Voluntary Services
Aberdeen (VSA), the Richmond Fellowship and
other voluntary sector organisations. These projects
took the formof half-way housing or supported
residential accommodation which provided a slightly
more sheltered environment. In the practice catch-
ment area, there are many large houses which have
become bed-and-breakfast accommodation for the
tourist and oil industries, as well as for recipients of
welfare benefits.
Some of these houses were obtained by VSA
and converted into accommodation for the care of
long-term patients leaving hospital. Thus, the Great
Western Road Medical Group rapidly developed a
large cohort of patients with severe and long-term
mental illnesses. Of the 392 patients resettled in
Grampian, the practice took on 29 patients within
these projects. This, in itself, may not appear many,
but it is by far the largest number of any practice
within Aberdeen city or counties (the nearest practice
of comparable size having only 15 discharged
patients). The discharge diagnoses ranged from
unspecified schizophrenic illness to manic depressive
psychosis. In addition to these patients, the practice
has another 81 patients with a severemental illness
who are resident in the community; the practice also
has responsibility for 72 patients in sheltered accom-
modation with severelearning difficulties. This
Integrated Care of Seriously Mentally Ill
People Within a General Practice Setting
CASE STUDY
ABSTRACT
In response to workload pressures and increasing demands upon primary care services, the Great
Western Road Medical Group in Aberdeen, along with its attached community mental health team
(CMHT), offers an integrated approach to the care of seriously mentally ill people in the community.
This article describes the service as it is currently operating.
To continue reading
Request your trial