A report by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners found Australians are seeing their doctor to discuss mental health ailments more than any other issue. 

The survey of more than 1500 GPs ranked psychological ailments as the most common cause for a patient consultation, at 62 per cent, followed by respiratory conditions, at 45 per cent. 

The Murrumbidgee Primary Health Network’s clinical advisor and GP liaison for mental health, drug and alcohol related illnesses Jonathan Ho, said through his clinical practice he believes mental health is also Wagga’s biggest ailment. 

“From my clinical practice I’ve realised that there is an unquenchable need for GPs to be up to speed with mental health and these concerns should be addressed with doctors,” Dr Ho said. 

“Working at Head Space we are chockers and the thing I found as a GP working in the outer metropolitan or rural setting is that mental health cannot be done alone, it has to be done in concert with a multidisciplinary team.

“This might involve psychologists, access to telepsychiatry, community mental health, drug and alcohol input as well as preventative health.” 

Similarly, Dr Emma Vieira from Trail Street Medical Centre said she is not shocked by these findings. 

“I suspect these findings would not surprise most of my colleagues and in fact, as recently as 2013, evidence suggested that depression was the fourth most common illness managed in general practice,” Dr Vieira said. 

“This does not take into account other common presentations of mental illness, such as an anxiety disorder or bipolar disorder.

“It is also common to manage mental health issues when you are seeing a patient for a different primary presentation – for example, inquiring about how someone’s depression is going when you are seeing him or her for a diabetes check up.”

Like Dr Vieira, Dr Ho said doctors have the “unique” ability to engage with patients over a long period of time. 

“The special gift of GPs is that we are able to be empathetic, non judgmental and we are able to listen to their concerns, so we can best direct them where they need to go,” he said. 

“We are generalists and we are able to not just do one small bit, we are the navigator for the patient, the patient does the driving but we can point them in the right direction.” 

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In the report, the RACGP was calling for increased funding for longer consultations, as mental health-related visits were the most common cause and also more complex. 

However Dr Ho argued that mental health is subjective to each individual and therefore a “smarter” method would be to use the available resources to address growing mental health issues. 

“Instead of thinking about the temporal timescape as whether we need 15, 30 or 45 minute, we need to think more time smarter or strategic in how we deal with individual mental health consultations, and how we can use the existing services better,” he said. 

“I think it’s now how much time a GP spends, but how they can actually point the patient in the right direction and to get the best time care and the right care. 

“I think the best way to do that, isn’t to give GPs more time or patients more time, it’s giving GPs empowerment in order to learn more about what is actually existing in the mental health scope of the MPHN, so that they can utilise these resources and offer them to patients.” 

The RACGP ensures that current and future GPs maintain a standard of accreditation and ongoing learning, within the mental health curriculum. 

Dr Ho argued that GPs should all be able to identify issues presentative of mental health, as well as being able to seek specialist or mental health support. 

The MPHN is an umbrella organisation that supports doctors as well as having a number of programs that target rural health. 

“I think the way that the MPHN has been dealing with mental health is quite a forward thinking and long-term planning organisation that looks at where mental health is needed and using specific programs targeting those areas,” Dr Ho said. 

“For example, there are some initiatives happening such as, the step care model, where we do realise that there are fine-art resources in mental health care, such as psychologists, but not every patient will require the same level of intensity. 

“This might mean that some people need low intensity – a few sessions – or some people might need a wrap around service where lots of people are involved.

“Having the step-care model, I think is really using the resources widely to make a better bang for buck,” the MPHN clinical advisor said.