Patient referral from primary care to psychological therapy services: a cohort study

Jonker, Leon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5867-4663 , Thwaites, Richard and Fisher, Stacey J. (2019) Patient referral from primary care to psychological therapy services: a cohort study. Family Practice .

Preview

PDF - Accepted Version Available under License CC BY-NC-ND Download (220kB) | Preview

Abstract

Background
Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) services in England offer psychological therapy for patients with mental health issues such as depression and anxiety disorders.

Objective
How are primary care patients referred to IAPT, to what degree does this correlate with subsequent attendance, and how is the referral process perceived by patients?

Methods
Retrospective analysis of medical records covering June 2018–June 2019 in seven general practices servicing 96 000 patients, to identify and survey patients with anxiety and/or depression.

Results
Records of 6545 patients were appraised; 2612 patients were deemed suitable for IAPT intervention by the GP. Of those, 1424 (55%) attended at least one IAPT appointment whereas 1188 (45%) did not. These ‘attender’ and ‘non-attender’ cohorts did not differ in age, gender or level of deprivation; neither did GP advice to self-refer rather than making a direct GP referral influence the attendance rate. The most common reasons for IAPT non-attendance include symptom improvement (22%), lack of belief in psychotherapy effectiveness (16%) or a patient feeling too unwell to either refer themselves or attend (12%).

Conclusions
Neither certain age or gender, nor the mode of patient referral to IAPT is associated with eventual attendance. Future research is indicated to identify in more detail if any specific mental health conditions are more likely to lead to non-attendance. Furthermore, there may be scope for a targeted approach for subgroups of patients, e.g. those who indicate they are feeling mentally too unwell, to enable them to attend IAPT screening and therapy appointments.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Family Practice
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0263-2136
Departments:	Academic Departments > Health, Psychology & Social Studies (HPSS) > Applied Psychology and Social Studies
Additional Information:	12 month embargo. Check pub info for more vol/issue/pages info. This is pre-print version.
Depositing User:	Christian Stretton
Date Deposited:	17 Dec 2019 10:07
Last Modified:	13 Jan 2024 10:17
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/5312

Downloads