How might we help people who come to see their GP practice with non-medical problems find the right support?

Why do we need to work on this?

• A large number of people come to GP practices because they are struggling with issues that they need support with, but which aren’t best addressed by medical interventions – for example someone may have anxiety because they are struggling financially and isolated after a relationship breakdown, a GP can only prescribe medication or refer someone for CBT but a better outcome would be to address the underlying problem through a benefits check or debt advice and to help the individual develop a stronger social network.
• People are complicated and the current model of General Practice, e.g. short appointments, doesn’t make it easy to look at people holistically and identify the right help or treatment.

What ideas did we come up with at our event?

• Raise awareness of non-medical support, especially for the 10% of people who use most GP visits
• Community wellbeing team – community 111
• Bring primary care outreach into the community in a ‘One Stop Shop’ by building on our Wellbeing Network with more hubs across the district Bradford Wellbeing Network

In the forum below, tell us...

What do you think of these ideas?  

What questions do you have?
What do you think would make the biggest difference?