Increasing general practitioner skills with patients with serious mental illness

This report describes a clinical training program designed to increase general practitioner involvement with a public mental health service. The program involved one half-day clinical session per week and one two-hour formal training seminar per month, over a six-month period. Prior to training, participants demonstrated major clinical and theoretical skill deficits when assessing patients with serious mental illnesses. While specific knowledge of psychiatry increased by the end of the training program, little change in clinical interview skills was evident. Current initiatives to enhance general practitioner involvement in mental health care may be hampered if these skill deficits are not directly addressed in relevant shared care programs.