EDUCATION IN PRIMARY-CARE PSYCHIATRY - RESEARCH-BASED AUDIT

This paper describes some of the difficulties faced by the KCGP Mental Health Education Fellows in designing an educational initiative to en hance the recognition and management of psychiatric illness in general practice. The initiative was evaluated using a consensus technique ov er six meetings which took place between 1993 and 1995. The results of the exercise illustrated the value of utilizing a validated instrumen t in identifying mental health problems, but when employed without sup port created disillusionment and a lack of confidence in the learner. However, when the instrument was applied as part of a wide educational process examining current practice, learners were stimulated to exami ne and change their behaviour by synthesizing newly acquired knowledge with their own previous clinical experience.