Unequal access and unmet need: neurotic disorders and the use of primary care services

Abstract

Background. In this paper we use data from the National Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity to examine how many people with neurotic disorders receive professional evaluation, and how this is affected by clinical and sociodemographic differences. We hypothesized that psychiatric symptoms and attendant dysfunctions would both have an effect on contacting, and that key demographic variables would not.

Identifying barriers to mental health help-seeking among young adults in the UK: a cross-sectional survey

“…[5][6][7][8] Despite a conscious move towards improving public awareness and reducing the stigma that surrounds mental health, evidence suggests that young people are less likely to seek help from others, particularly professional help from GPs. [9][10][11][12] Barriers to help-seeking can include difficulties in accessing support, concerns about confidentiality and trust, a preference for informal sources of help, and stigma. 13,14 Although existing studies, including those outside of the UK, have focused on mental health help-seeking among adolescents, 10,15 university students, [16][17][18] or adults of all ages, 13,19 few have reported on the barriers experienced by young adults aged 18-25 years from the UK general population.…”

Frequent attendance in family practice and common mental disorders in an open access health care system

“…They are clinically heterogeneous exhibiting higher rates of non disease-specific physical and chronic illness [7,[11][12][13]. Higher rates of FA are found in association with mental illness [11,[14][15][16][17][18][19], the likelihood of FA increasing with anxiety disorder by a factor of 1.14 in a multi-adjusted model [19]. FAs also have higher rates of depressive symptoms [15,16,20,21], as well as somatoform symptoms or disorders [20][21][22][23].…”

Can a self-referral system help improve access to psychological treatments?

“…However, it may address a key finding from the National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey that about 70% of people with mental health problems do not present to their GP and therefore do not have access to psychological therapy. 7 Even if patients do consult their GP, problems may not always be detected. Shortcomings in clinicians' skills in detecting mental health problems have been commonly reported.…”