Focus on Mental Health

A call for more investment in mental health provision

The Health of the Nation research has revealed that better support services and a change in patient attitude are essential if the provision of care for mental health patients is to be improved.

• 58% of GPs say the quality of NHS care provided for mental health patients is poor.
• Over half (52%) of GPs cite the lack of support for patients with mental health issues as their key concern.
• 45% of GPs believe mental health will be the biggest health issue in 2011.

While the quality of care for patients with physical conditions such as cancer and heart disease is felt to have improved in recent years, nearly three in five (58%) GPs feel that the quality of care provided by the NHS for mental health issues is poor.

With nearly half (45%) of GPs saying that stress and mental health conditions will be the biggest health issues that they’ll treat in 2011, now’s the time for the spotlight to be turned to mental health.

Other useful insight from the report on mental health include:

Over a quarter of GPs (26%) say that it’s hard to help patients with mental health problems because there’s little access to support services in their area with over a third (35%) admit to prescribing pills as a ‘quick-win’ solution.

Over a quarter (28%) of GPs feel that patients have unreasonable expectations with many believing that there’s a ‘cure all’ pill for mental health conditions.

Nearly two out of five GPs (38%) feel that mental health is a social issue rather than medical.

Over half (55%) of GPs feel that they need more support from employers to help prevent workplace stress.

Would you like to see more details?

For more information, we encourage you to download the full Health of the Nation report (PDF 539KB). Hard copies are also available by request, from hcpr@aviva.co.uk.