Message from the Chair

Hello from the General Practice Mental Health Standards Collaboration (GPMHSC) and welcome to the autumn edition of our newsletter.

Department of Health contract finalised

Over recent months, the GPMHSC has been busy finalising our contract with the Department of Health, which will ensure funding over the next two years. As part of this agreement, we’ll continue to develop and implement a range of projects to improve general practice training and education in mental health.

COVID-19 update

GPs are seeing a surge in mental health cases and enquiries about the COVID-19 vaccination program. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by all this extra work, so make sure you take the time for self-care and ask for extra support from colleagues.

You can find more information on self-care and mental health resources for GPs on the RACGP website.

I encourage you to consider asking patients to book longer consultations. This will help spread out your workload and might be particularly beneficial when patients present with multiple health concerns.

Proposal on advanced mental health training

I’ve been pleased by the increasing interest from educators, training providers and other mental health organisations in the proposed advanced mental health training. These discussions are encouraging, particularly in terms of how this important work could one day align with the revised GPMHSC standards for  mental health training and education.

You can read the position statement on Advanced Mental Health Training Recognition on our website.
 
Associate Professor Morton Rawlin
Chair, GPMHSC