Child and Adolescent Mental Health within Primary Care: A Study of General Practitioners' Perceptions

Primary Care teams play an important role in the provision of mental health care to children and young people.

We developed and distributed a questionnaire to all General Practitioners within one Health Authority area.

Many of the respondents rated as less than satisfactory their competence and their knowledge and skills in important areas of child and adolescent mental health practice. A significant minority expressed a high level of interest in child and adolescent mental health and most respondents reported that they would value further training.

General Practitioners should be provided with more training and support in their role as providers of child and adolescent mental health care.