User Involvement in Primary Care
| Date | 01 September 1996 |
| Published date | 01 September 1996 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322199600027 |
| Pages | 18-20 |
| Author | Colin Gell |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
18 The Mental Health Review 1:3 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 1996
It was decided to approach user groups in
Birmingham to establish whether they would be
interested in being involved. Two user groups
enlisted the help of their members on the FHSA’s
behalf by promoting the project at a local day centre
and through a newsletter. As a result, ten individuals
volunteered (seven male and three female) to take
part in the study. All had been ill for a period of
several years and were classed by their respective
mental health teams as having continuing mental
health care needs.
The interview asked individuals about the
kind of help they currently required from their
GP,whether they saw the practice nurse and what
problems or positive experiences they had
encountered during consultations or when making
contact with the practice. Questions wereasked
directly to ascertain whether they received advice
on medication and health promotion and where
their yearly review took place. They were asked
how they would respond to practices holding a data-
base on patients with mental health problems and
whether, in their view, GPs and practice staff had
sufficient training to understand their illness. They
were also asked whether they would be interested
in working with GPs to produce an information
leaflet for patients on mental illness and available
support. Finally, their willingness to work jointly
with agencies such as the FHSA on training courses
for practice staffwas ascertained.
Initially, all service users were concerned about
giving information about their GP and assurances
were asked for that individuals would not be named
and comments personalised. In general, overall
satisfaction with GPs was low and seven said they
did not feel listened to; all felt that they were treated
as somatisers, even when presenting with genuine
physical symptoms. Eight felt they were given
insufficient information about medication. All users
felt in awe of their GP
.All welcomed the idea of
Colin Gell, Associate User Consultant
CMHSD
There has been a rapid growth in the number
of mental health service user groups over
the last decade. Most of these groups are
involved with health and social services. Increasingly,
this is being done in a more sophisticated way, with
agreements being drawn up and involvement of
users formalised in Trust/social services and
purchasing agency policies. However, one area
where there has been very little involvement is
in primarycare. Primarycarehas always played
an important role in the lives of most service users.
This is now being more widely acknowledged and
supported through national initiatives described
elsewherein this Review.
One of the key studies in this area has been
undertaken by Diane Bailey at the University of
Birmingham.1The FHSA in Birmingham sought
to obtain general feedback about the primaryhealth
care services through a scheme entitled Putting
Patient Feedback Into Practice.Asignificant number of
practices wereinvolved and participation
encouraged in a variety of ways ranging from
questionnaires and surveys to patient participation
groups. It seemed appropriate to take this approach
one stage further specifically in relation to mental
health and ask mental health service users what they
would want to see delivered by their GP
.This
included:
●identifying appropriate forums to provide access
to users’ views;
●establishing users’ views on key standards they
would wish to see developed;
●providing consultation on the draft standards
produced;
●feedback from the consultation exercise to devise
afinal set of standards as a framework for the
deliveryof quality mental health carein general
practice.
User Involvement in Primary Care
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE
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