Developing the mental health workforce capacity in primary care: implementing the role of graduate primary care mental health workers in England

摘要

The scale of current demand on primary care servicesudfrom people seeking help with common mental health problems places enormous pressure on the existing front line workers in general practice. The paucity of training opportunities and competing pressures to deliver improved services across a range of general practice targets remains a major challenge for primary care professionals. The impact ofudgovernment policy, to improve both access to and choice of treatments, has raised public expectations. The commissioning of the graduate workforce, the graduate worker in primary care mental health(GWPCMH), commenced in 2002, in response to the publication of target numbers detailed in the Priorities and Planning Framework, (DoH, 2002). It signalled a determination to expand the workforceudprovision and improve the quality of care for serviceudusers with common mental health problems. This paper examines the scale of common mental health problems, the policy response and the commissioning process. Particular attention is given to examining the barriers that have been shown to affect implementation, identifying the key influencers and the resources required to train these workers.