What Reforms Would You Like To See?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi all,

I thought it might be a good idea to talk about mental health and reforms.

Since we are very much a global community it would be great to see how others countries deal with mental health and understand what you would like to see changed to make it better. It would also be useful to understand what people in other countries are receiving so we all know what can help with anxiety disorders.

All ideas are welcome whether its more pushing of current services, decreased waiting times, expanded therapies or new solutions.

:yesyes::yesyes::yesyes:

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hmm, ok.

I think I would like to see (not including equality with physical health issues as I doubt it will ever happen:

- GP's take more responsibility for their patients when seeing a therapist/counsellor and for interaction to take place between them.
- Holistic approaches by GP's to ensure all angles are covered e.g. diet, exercise, deficiences (what NHS Choices say your GP should check first before making an anxiety disorder diagnosis don't match to my experience), etc.
- Less bureaucracy in list management so that patients are referred to the right service for them, not what is right for the lists or a flowchart that stipulates you can't skip a step.
- GP's to be more open & proactive about issuing book prescriptions, the GP Exercise Referral Scheme and in promoting access to online CBT courses (CCBT)
- Greater monitoring of GP's handling mental health cases which missed out completely in the surgery standards questions they devised to monitor surgeries last year.
- Further patient feedback opportunities which currently seem sparse.
- More awareness in surgeries or providing information on services.
- Appointment durations relevant to the specific needs of the patient with mental health issues e.g. longer than 10 minutes.
- GP's providing greater access to self help modules to issue to patients.
- Drug therapy awarness for GP's.
- Drug therapy awareness for patients.

I'm sure there is a lot more out there than this.

[blue moon]

More beds for Mental Health in Public Hospitals and more Doctors in regional areas.My husband works double shifts due to lack of them.

[Sam123]

Holistic approaches by GP's to ensure all angles are covered e.g. diet, exercise, deficiences (what NHS Choices say your GP should check first before making an anxiety disorder diagnosis don't match to my experience), etc.

This one definitely.