Patient referral from primary care to psychological therapy services: a cohort study.
Fam Pract
; 37(3): 395-400, 2020 07 23.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31829408
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) services in England offer psychological therapy for patients with mental health issues such as depression and anxiety disorders.OBJECTIVE:
How are primary care patients referred to IAPT, to what degree does this correlate with subsequent attendance, and how is the referral process perceived by patients?METHODS:
Retrospective analysis of medical records covering June 2018-June 2019 in seven general practices servicing 96 000 patients, to identify and survey patients with anxiety and/or depression.RESULTS:
Records of 6545 patients were appraised; 2612 patients were deemed suitable for IAPT intervention by the GP. Of those, 1424 (55%) attended at least one IAPT appointment whereas 1188 (45%) did not. These 'attender' and 'non-attender' cohorts did not differ in age, gender or level of deprivation; neither did GP advice to self-refer rather than making a direct GP referral influence the attendance rate. The most common reasons for IAPT non-attendance include symptom improvement (22%), lack of belief in psychotherapy effectiveness (16%) or a patient feeling too unwell to either refer themselves or attend (12%).CONCLUSIONS:
Neither certain age or gender, nor the mode of patient referral to IAPT is associated with eventual attendance. Future research is indicated to identify in more detail if any specific mental health conditions are more likely to lead to non-attendance. Furthermore, there may be scope for a targeted approach for subgroups of patients, e.g. those who indicate they are feeling mentally too unwell, to enable them to attend IAPT screening and therapy appointments.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Atenção Primária à Saúde
/
Psicoterapia
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Encaminhamento e Consulta
/
Transtornos Mentais
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
Limite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
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Male
/
Middle aged
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2020
Tipo de documento:
Article