Care and Support from your GP Practice

Between 2020 and 2021, many people in Edinburgh with lived experience of mental health issues told us about changes that have taken place at their GP practice because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

People with lived experience often depend on care from their GP, practice nurse or other workers at their GP practice for their mental and physical health and to access other services and benefits which they rely on.

At an Edinburgh Community Voices meeting in April 2021, the group discussed the issue and decided that they wanted to do something to collect people’s experiences and hear their views. In this way, feedback could be passed on to the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership and GP practices about those changes which seem to be working well, and those changes which are not working well – so that if any changes are kept, it is those changes which work for people and are helpful for them.

At the end of April, AdvoCard launched a survey to gather people’s views and hear from them about their experiences. 29 people responded to our survey.

We would like to say a big thank you to everybody who contributed.

If there’s one thing that could be learned from this survey, it’s that a one size fits all approach doesn’t work. People with lived experience of mental health issues have a range of needs when it comes to accessing healthcare, many of which are not specifically related to their mental health.

GP Practices don’t need to go back to the old way of doing things in order to meet people’s needs. In fact, they shouldn’t. The different needs that people have mean that some people experience changes in a different way to others. Some of the people we heard from found some of the changes to be helpful. Others have found that changes have not been helpful, and have affected them negatively.

Asking people with lived experience about what their needs are, listening to them, and being prepared to be flexible and make adjustments, can really help them access the care and support they need and have a right to.

If you would like to read the report you can download the pdf file below
(Trigger warning: please be aware there is a very brief reference to a suicide attempt on page 19)