Developing mental health services in a primary care setting: Liverpool Primary Care Mental Health Project

The Liverpool Primary Care Mental Health Project (PCMHP) was set up in 1996 to provide mental health services in a primary care setting. This study de scribes and evaluates an impact of a working model of a multi-disciplinary team in close association with five Liverpool practices. The data were collected on all patients who came in contact with the PCMHP team during a three-year period and compared with the data available for th e five neighboring teams on waiting time between referral and assessment, c linical outcome, in-patient bed usage, GPs' and patients' satisfaction with services. The number of new referrals remained the same over three years. The usage o f inpatient beds dropped by 38% in the same period. Waiting time between re ferral and assessment for new patients reduced from six weeks to one-two we eks. GP's were highly satisfied with access to CMH Nurses, overall communic ation with the team and overall delivery of the services. Over 80% of patie nts were satisfied with the services. Integrated mental health services with primary care proved to be effective and satisfactory to GPs as well as to patients. This approach did not incre ase the workload of the mental health team.