What consideration has the Minister given to supporting the provision of a dedicated mental health worker at each GP practice in Wales?
GPs play an important role in supporting people’s mental health – part of the work of the Local Primary Mental Health Services is to support them to do this, by providing specialist advice and support.
I am committed to further improve access to mental health support in primary care. Work is underway to strengthen mental health support in primary care through the National Strategic Plan for Primary Care. The initial focus is on joint working between mental health and primary care to link people with strengthened support for low-level mental health issues. This includes digital and telephone-based support. People do not need a referral from a GP to access this support, but increased access to such support provides GPs with a range of options for people who do not meet the threshold for more specialist services.
I have convened a Ministerial Delivery and Oversight Board for mental health in Wales and we will ensure the primary care work programme is represented to improve integration of services.
Three pilots have been set up to better connect people to local mental health services through improved integration of mental health support in urgent primary care teams. This uses a single point of contact (via 111) and provides people with a call back from a mental health practitioner to provide support.
This will inform further action to strengthen mental health support in primary care as we deliver on our recently refreshed Mental Health Delivery Plan 2019-22.