Mental health education resources
Resources on this page have been sorted into three categories, physical health needs, suicide prevention/risk assessment and common mental health concerns seen in general practice.
Resources on this page have been sorted into three categories, physical health needs, suicide prevention/risk assessment and common mental health concerns seen in general practice.
Physical health needs of people with mental health conditions
Pinnacle MHN clinical audit: Monitoring of antipsychotics
Patients with serious mental illness have increased rates of metabolic disturbances such as obesity, diabetes and dyslipidaemia. They are also at increased risk of medical illness, particularly cardiovascular disease. Treatment with some antipsychotic medications can cause or aggravate these disorders. Guidelines recommend that certain medications have specific regular monitoring. This audit measures routine metabolic monitoring e.g. Weight/BMI, HbA1c, and lipids for a random set of patients who had been prescribed specific antipsychotics in the last 12-18 months. Secondary measurements include whether the patient has a primary indication for the medication and is on regular recall system.
Goodfellow Unit webinar: Prescribing antipsychotics in primary care
Webinar with Associate Professor David Menkes. Topics discussed:
- which drug to choose
- how to start the chosen drug
- adverse effects
- monitoring and compliance
- how to withdraw patients from an antipsychotic drug
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special focus on quetiapine: metabolic side effects, potential for abuse and doses for sleep versus antipsychotic.
Equally Well prescribing toolkit - Resources to inform a shared approach for the prescribing of medication
Te Pou o te Whakaaro Nui has collaborated with the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and Wellbeing Wellington to develop this toolkit to assist the conversations between a prescribing health professional and a person accessing their service about wellbeing and physical health. This includes specific implications of the medication(s) they are, or may be, prescribed and information on what could be involved in discontinuing the medication.
Suicide prevention / risk assessment in primary care
Suicide prevention: what can primary care do to make a difference?
Clearly we have a problem. There has been much effort from individuals and organisations around New Zealand in suicide prevention, but we are yet to find the right formula for reversing this phenomenon. The reasons for suicide are multifactorial, as are the reasons why it is so challenging to address this on a population level. What we can do, however, is to focus on an intervention, one person at a time.
Common mental health concerns in general practice
Goodfellow Unit webinar: FACT - Radical change is possible for patients in brief primary care visits
Kirk Strosahl discusses how Focussed Acceptance and Commitment therapy (FACT) can easily be introduced in very short change-oriented conversations, be it in a school nurse's office, a general practice visit or in a mental health therapy session.
Goodfellow Unit webinar: Antidepressants in primary care
Associate Professor David Menkes and Professor Bruce Arroll discussed the evidence for the benefit for antidepressants in primary care and cases to indicate:
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how to do the first consultation
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if and when to start antidepressants
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when to increase the dose and when to change to another medication
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what about augmentation with other medications such as benzodiazepines, antidepressants and antipsychotics
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side effects
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how to withdraw a patient from antidepressants.