WHO Guide to Mental and Neurological Health in Primary Care

The second edition of the WHO Guide to Mental and Neurological Health in Primary Care has been prepared in the light of the experience of primary-care clinicians and takes account of their specific needs. Concise, user-friendly and orientated towards management, this book contains essential information for GPs and other healthcare workers on how to help patients of all ages who are suffering from mental and neurological ill health.

The book gives helpful guidance on diagnosis and on treatment strategies for primary care clinicians. It also provides guidance on what to say to patients and their families and how to give them support and advice. It provides materials to support clinicians in working collaboratively with patients and encouraging their active participation in treatment. A set of patient information leaflets is provided on CD-Rom. These can be printed out and given to patients. A set of summary cards is provided: they are designed to be used interactively by the clinician in order to facilitate discussion with the patient during the consultation. Suggested template charts of information about local resources for people suffering mental and neurological ill health are also provided.

The text of the book is available in searchable HTML format on the Centre for Evidence Based Mental Health website: www.mentalneurologicalprimarycare.org

The evidence base for the recommendations on treatments is set out: but the guidance contains much more than the outcomes of trials of the efficacy of particular treatments. It represents also the clinical wisdom of a very large group of experts whose collective experience of mental and neurological health in primary care is enormous.

Although designed primary with primary care clinicians in mind, the book will be useful to others who work with primary care in the fields of mental health and neurological health - including community health workers, voluntary organizations and primary care patients.

The guidance in this book is compatible with ICD-10 and with the Clinical Terms (Read Codes), which are used by GPs. As such, it provides a common language to help all those working in mental and neurological healthcare - primary and secondary care clinicians, patients, families and community groups - to communicate with each other.

The volume is a highly practical, simple to use tool that can help make neurological and mental health care a more integral part of primary healthcare practice.