title: Promoting Mental Health and Preventing Mental Illness in General Practice.
abstract: This paper calls for the routine integration of mental health promotion and prevention into UK General Practice in order to reduce the burden of mental and physical disorders and the ensuing pressure on General Practice. The proposals & the resulting document (https://ethicscharity.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/rcgp_keymsg_150925_v5.pdf) arise from an expert 'Think Tank' convened by the London Journal of Primary Care, Educational Trust for Health Improvement through Cognitive Strategies (ETHICS Foundation) and the Royal College of General Practitioners. It makes 12 recommendations for General Practice: (1) Mental health promotion and prevention are too important to wait. (2) Work with your community to map risk factors, resources and assets. (3) Good health care, medicine and best practice are biopsychosocial rather than purely physical. (4) Integrate mental health promotion and prevention into your daily work. (5) Boost resilience in your community through approaches such as community development. (6) Identify people at increased risk of mental disorder for support and screening. (7) Support early intervention for people of all ages with signs of illness. (8) Maintain your biopsychosocial skills. (9) Ensure good communication, interdisciplinary team working and inter-sectoral working with other staff, teams and agencies. (10) Lead by example, taking action to promote the resilience of the general practice workforce. (11) Ensure mental health is appropriately included in the strategic agenda for your 'cluster' of General Practices, at the Clinical Commissioning Groups, and the Health and Wellbeing Board. (12) Be aware of national mental health strategies and localise them, including action to destigmatise mental illness within the context of community development.
authors.affiliation: Mental Health/Learning Disabilities/Dementia Portfolio, NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group.
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: ETHICS Board of Trustees, Epidemiology and Mental Health Policy, Kings College London.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.affiliation: Primary Care Advisor, Health Education , NW London.
authors.forename: Tony
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Burch
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Calamos Nasir
authors.affiliation: PAERS Ltd, Health Empowerment Leverage Project.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Geocultural Analyses (GEOLAB), Ionian University.
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Giotaki
authors.affiliation: Imperial College , London.
authors.forename: Shamini
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gnani
authors.affiliation: Strategic Clinical Network for Mental Health , London.
authors.forename: Lise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hertel
authors.affiliation: Educational Trust for Health Improvement through Cognitive Strategies (ETHICS).
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.affiliation: Royal College of General Practitioners.
authors.forename: Nigel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mathers
authors.affiliation: Marie Curie National Clinical End of Life Care Champion.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Millington-Sanders
authors.affiliation: Mental Health, Inclusion and Community, University of Central Lancashire.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.affiliation: Primary Care Commissioner and Development Consultant.
authors.forename: Baljeet
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ruprah-Shah
authors.affiliation: Family Medicine and Community Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Oncology and Sociology, Case Western Reserve University , Cleveland , OH , USA.
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stange
authors.affiliation: London Journal of Primary Care.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Ealing Primary Care Mental Health Service, West London Mental Health Trust.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: Public Health Barking and Dagenham Council and Greater London Authority.
authors.forename: Fiona
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wright
keywords: Mental health promotion; general practice; mental health integration; parity; public health