Primary Care Reports

3 July 2012

RCGP Comment on the Centre for Economic Research Report 'How Mental Health Loses Out in the NHS'

Professor Clare Gerada, Chair of the RCGP, said:

"We live in a stressful society and the number of patients with mental health problems presenting to GPs is on an upward spiral. GPs face tremendous challenges in caring for patients with mental health problems in primary care and we welcome any development which will help us improve their care.

"Talking therapies have the potential to transform thousands of patients' lives and we applaud Lord Layard and his team for their efforts to extend the programme further. This would be a major step forward, not only for patients, but for GPs and other health professionals working in mental health.

"GPs must have access to a range of talking therapies, from counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy to longer term psychotherapies, for the wide range of conditions that we see in our consulting rooms."

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