CPN smoothes transfer

Mental Health Nursing,  Jul 1999  

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Dedicated psychiatric care within general practice: health outcome and service providers views

Bruce J et al.

Journal of Advanced Nursing 1999; 29, 5: 106G1067.

A CPN service based in general practice can help smooth the transfer of patients from longterm institutional care to community settings, according to a study of 23 people with chronic mental illness.

A general practice accepted responsibility for the patients when their care was transferred from secondary to primary services. Staff were concerned about a possible increase in workload, confirmed by an internal audit which suggested a consultation rate nine times higher for chronically mentally ill patients compared with other patient groups. So a CPN was employed for I5 hours a week to dedicate care to patients resettled in hostels. This group of patients was compared with another who were registered with a similar practice but with no 'dedicated' CPN.

The authors acknowledge the study's small size, but say staff in the first practice welcomed the improved communication which the CPN offered between practice staff and the secondary services. But they add that the main beneficiaries may be the staff rather than the service users, whose quality of life scores were similar in both groups.

'Nevertheless, it is apparent from the findings of this study that both primary care teams and carers welcome liaison with hospital psychiatric services for the management of these patients. A dedicated CPN based within primary care would seem to fill this role.'

Copyright Community Psychiatric Nurses Association Jul 1999
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