Role of general practitioners in care of long term mentally ill patients.

Abstract

The uneven distribution of long term mentally ill patients suggests that community pyschiatric resources might be better targeted at those practices with higher numbers of such patients. Most general practitioners seem to be receptive to a shared care plan when the consultant takes responsibility for monitoring psychiatric health with the community nurse as key worker. The lack of practice policies for reviewing the care of long term mentally ill patients must limit general practitioners' ability to prevent crises developing in their care.