Self-referrers to community workshops: who are they and why do some participants not consult with their GP about their mental health difficulties?

BACKGROUND

Self-referring is an important pathway to care that is being used increasingly by services, but little research has been conducted in this area.

AIMS

To examine whether self-referrers would (i) be representative of the local community; (ii) be significantly psychologically distressed; (iii) be demographically similar to GP consulters and (iv) to investigate non-consulters' attitudinal reasons for not consulting their GPs.

METHOD

The study is a cross-sectional analysis of 442 self-referrers who attended one of six one-day Cognitive Behavioural Therapy workshop programmes in the community. Socio-demographic details and information about past contact with GP services and attitudes towards non-consulting were collected. Parametric and non-parametric tests and logistic regressions were used to analyse the data.

RESULTS

Self-referrers were representative of the local population although a disproportionate number of participants were unemployed and unoccupied. Over a quarter (26.5%) had not consulted their GPs. GP consulters had significantly higher clinical outcome in routine evaluation scores, though the scores of both groups were in the clinical range. Non-consulters tended to be from black, minority and ethnic groups and male. Attitudinal reasons for not consulting their GP were independently categorised as Perception of Services, Perception of Illness and Self-coping.

CONCLUSIONS

Self-referral offers access to services to people who have been previously reluctant to consult.