A cross-sectional survey of General Practitioners’ knowledge of the wait times for mental health treatment and services for adolescent patients with depression and anxiety in Australia
Authors: O’Dea Bridianne , Subotic-Kerry Mirjana , Borchard Thomas , Parker Belinda , Vilus Bojana , Iorfino Frank , Whitton Alexis E. , Harris-Roxas Ben , Wade Tracey D. , de Valle Madelaine K. , Glozier Nicholas , Nicholas Jennifer , Torok Michelle , Braund Taylor A. , Batterham Philip J. 
Published: September 2024

Background

General Practitioners (GPs) play a key role in the treatment of adolescent depression and anxiety in Australia, but their capacity to provide effective care is likely compromised by long wait times for mental health professionals and services.

Aim

To explore GPs’ referral practices to mental health treatment and services for adolescents with depression and/or anxiety, their knowledge of wait times and the perceived impact of these on GPs and their patients and proposed acceptable wait times.

Design, Setting and Methods

An online survey of 192 GPs in Australia who treated adolescents (12 to 17 years old) with depression and/or anxiety.

Results

GPs most frequently referred their adolescent patients with depression and/or anxiety to psychologists and the mean estimated wait time was 57 days (SD: 47.9), which was four times their proposed acceptable wait time (M: 16.7 days, SD: 27.0). The frequency of medication prescribing by GPs almost doubled during the wait time when compared to routine care (14.6% versus 8.3%, respectively). Almost all GPs (81.8%) increased their level of care due to long wait times but had limited training in adolescent mental health or knowledge on appropriate strategies to do so effectively.

Conclusion

The findings signify the discrepancies between GPs’ preferences for mental health treatment availability in Australia and what they perceive to be acceptable and the experience of their adolescent patients who they have referred to specialist care. Greater knowledge of wait time strategies, adolescent mental health training, and improved communication between referrer and referred services may help GPs to enhance the quality of primary care provided to adolescent patients with depression and/or anxiety in Australia.

STRENGTHS & LIMITATIONS

This is the first study to examine GPs’ knowledge of wait times for mental health specialists and services for adolescent patients with depression and anxiety in Australia.

The current study is strengthened by its focus on the most common mental health conditions in adolescents, however, different results may be found when examining GPs’ treatment patterns for mental health conditions that may have more immediate need for treatment (e.g. psychosis).

Due to the sample size and self-report nature, the study may not adequately represent the diversity of GPs across Australia or capture the full spectrum of challenges or treatment practices used by GPs.

Future research should explore other non-mental health related patient characteristics or profiles that may be at greater risk of negative effects during the wait time, such as unique developmental needs, socio-economic disadvantage and parental separation.

Additionally, qualitative methods, such as semi-structured interviews, may provide a richer scope of understanding of the impact of wait times on GPs and their rationale for treatment selection.