Mental health
Resources
Clinical resources
Education resources
MBS resources and templates
Locate mental health professionals
Patient resources
Publications
Resources for GP's mental health
Clinical resources
The RACGP provides the following links as a resource for GPs, but does not formally endorse the use of the tools and proformas. GPs are advised to review and familiarise themselves with any new resource or tool before implementing in practice.
K10 Symptom Scale
Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS)
Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale
ICD-10 Chapter V: Mental and behavioural
disorders
Guidelines
Guidelines for
preventive activities in general practice ('Red Book')
Provides evidence based guidelines, including for psychosocial screening
in general practice.
Putting prevention
into practice ('Green Book')
Provides strategies for implementing preventive activities in the
general practice setting.
National guide to
a preventive health assessment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples
Provides screening recommendations for mental health and
suicide prevention in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Education resources
gplearning
The RACGP's online training arm, gplearning has a number of high quality professional development activities relating to mental health, including depression, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and substance use.
check program
The check Program is one of the longest running and most successful self education programs in the history of Australian general practice.
MBS resources and templates
Department of Health and Ageing
information about the GP Mental Health Care Medicare items.
Template for GP Mental Health Care
Plan
PDF Printable version of the Medicare GP
Mental Health Care Items – fact sheet
Locate mental health professionals
Psychologists
The Australian Psychological Society operates an expanding
referral
service of psychologists: under the link to 'Find a psychologist'.
To locate a psychologist in your area: www.psychology.org.au
Occupational therapists
OT Australia continues to compile a list of eligible
occupational
therapists (OTs) accessible via their website.
To locate eligible OTs: www.ausot.com.au
Social workers
Social workers are easily located through the Australian
Association
of Social Workers website, grouped by Division of General Practice,
and
with professional biographies available online.
To locate eligible social workers: www.aasw.asn.au
Psychiatrists
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
has a
database that GPs can search for psychiatrists by geographical
location
or by specialty area. The database is available to members of the
RACGP.
To locate psychiatrists: www.racgp.org.au/psychiatristdatabase - Psychiatrist
referral directory manual
GP providers of FPS
Currently, no centralised list of GP providers of FPS exists.
Divisions of general practice often have this information, or the
Beyondblue ‘Directory of Medical and Allied Health Practitioners in
Mental Health' allows health professionals and the public to search
for
medical practitioners with an interest in mental health.
This directory can be accessed from the Beyondblue website: www.beyondblue.org.au
Patient resources
Information
for consumers: GP Mental Health Care Plan Medicare items fact
sheet
Beyondblue patient fact sheet: help for
depression under Medicare
Mental illness and life insurance: What you need to know
- a brief guide
Mental illness and life insurance: What you need to know
- a detailed guide
Publications
Mental
health review
A brief newsletter circulated quarterly with Australian Family
Physician, aiming to provide GPs a quick read on topical issues in
mental health.
Resources for GP's mental health
Professional peer support
program
Doctors may do well at managing the health care of their patients, but
are not always particularly good at looking after their own needs. The
RACGP is involved in a number of programs that aim to support improved
self care by GPs.