Physical Health of People with Mental Illness: A Snapshot of Consumer Engagement in the Provision of Care in Primary Care

Abstract

Primary care is crucial to the health of people with mental illness. However, there is limited information on their reported engagement in this setting. This study surveyed 100 people with mental illness who had a general practitioner or a general practitioner and a case manager from a tertiary mental health service to determine their engagement level with their GP and what interventions they received to manage their health. Forty-four per cent had their psychotropic medications primarily prescribed by their GP, and 58% reported visiting their GP for physical health problems. Ninety-four point nine percent of participants aged 50 years and over had not received government age-recommended preventive health checks. Only 62% of participants reported being screened by their GP for psychotropic side effects. Primary care plays a crucial role in providing physical and mental health care, but service users report gaps in service. The findings suggest a need to support primary care professionals further to coordinate care across primary and secondary care settings.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge participants of this study for being involved in the study. The Western Australia Department of Health for funding this project and Jenny Tatoha for her help in conducting the interviews.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the South Metropolitan Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee and the University Human Research Ethics Committee (ethics number HR61/2014) and (SMSH-14/12). Informed consent detailing anonymity, data storage arrangements and participants’ right to withdraw was obtained by integrating the participant information sheet at the beginning of the online survey. Participants who were not interested in completing the study had the option to withdraw before starting the survey questions.

Author contributions

DW and KH authors contributed to the design and oversight of the study. DW, KH and IN have contributed equally to the data analysis and manuscript write-up and have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by the Western Australian Department of Health under Targeted Research Funds 2013 (Round 3) (Wynaden et al., 2014).