Mind campaign calls for more help from GPs

Mental health charity Mind has launched a new campaign aimed at
increasing the level of choice available to mental health service
users at primary care level.

Results from a Mind survey show that 98 per cent of people
visiting their GP for mental health problems are prescribed
medication despite less than one in five specifically asking for
it.

More than half of the 178 respondents felt they had not been
given enough choice and of those who had tried alternative
treatments, more than one in three had to ask for it – and
often pay for it – themselves. Nearly 10 per cent were unable
to access treatments because waiting lists were too long.

The top five alternatives to medication are counselling; group
therapy; art, music and drama therapy; psychotherapy; and
aromatherapy. Richard Brook, chief executive of Mind, said the
charity would be distributing to doctors and primary care trusts a
model of the range of services it would like to see made available
by GPs.

Meanwhile, older people’s charities have welcomed a report
criticising the state of mental health services for older people,
and have called for “considerable and urgent” action to be taken on
its recommendations.

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