Staff are interested in developing knowledge and skills pertinent to the psychological problems of their patients and their views reveal a consensus that the most important areas for learning are recognition of mental disorders, anxiety management, crisis intervention and pharmacological treatments for depression.

The findings of this study have important implications for the training of practice nurses in mental health, specifically in the areas of medication management and the detection of mental disorders.

These results demonstrate that practice nurses' caseloads include a high proportion of patients with psychiatric morbidity and that agreement with the GHQ classification of psychiatric morbidity is modest. Therefore, training in detection will be crucial for the nurses.

The National Service Framework for Mental Health focuses on the mental health needs of adults up to the age of 65. Susan Plummer and Richard Gray discuss standard two by focusing on depression.

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