Recognition of mental health problems by doctors and social workers

The paper reports on the early findings of a project which is investigating the role of the social services in community mental health. The General Health Questionnaire and a scale to detect dementia were used to estimate the prevalence of mental health problems among people in contact with the social services. The proportion of people with such problems ranges between 35.2% and 52.2% depending on where the boundary is drawn between mental health and illness. The level of agreement between the results of the questionnaires and the identification of mental health problems by both general practitioners and social workers is presented and discussed. Greater collaboration between doctors and social workers could increase the level of detection of mental health problems. Ways of improving practice in mental health social work are also being investigated and will be reported in future papers.