Doctors in Derry are ‘drowning’ under the demand for help from people suffering with depression, a local GP has claimed.
Doctor John O’Kelly (pictured), who has worked in the city for over 20 years, believes that a lack of investment in mental health support services is to blame for the large-scale increase in local people suffering from depression.
He also suggests that mental health is viewed as an unfashionable branch of medicine which has been somewhat overlooked.
Another Derry GP, Dr. Tom Black, has also intimated that circumstances unique to Derry such as the Troubles and high levels of social deprivation have exacerbated the problem.
Figures published by the Department for Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Northern Ireland (DHSSPS), show that the number of people using anti-depressants within the Western Trust area has almost tripled in the period between 2007-2015.
In 2007 the number of people on anti-depressants within the Western Trust area was 17,560.
This number has tripled since then, with 48,680 people in receipt of anti-depressants for the year 2014-2015.
Of these people, 856 of them were aged 15-19 and 10,975 were aged 50-59.
There are currently no figures available for last year.
Based on figures published by Business Services Organisation, a branch of the Health and Social Care Board, in the period between 2011 and 2014 – which were the only years published - the Western Trust area has experienced a rise of almost 80,000 prescriptions for anti-depressants.
And within the last ten years there has been a rise of more than one and a half million prescriptions for anti-depressants in Northern Ireland.
Dr O’Kelly is chair of the Royal College of General Practitioner’s in Northern Ireland and has been a practising GP in Derry since 1995.
He said not enough is being done to address mental health issues in Derry.
Although services are improving, he said, they ‘were still inadequate’.
Dr. O’Kelly feels the people of Derry would be better served if services were improved.
“Anti-depressants have a role and a use in the treating and management of depression but they are definitely not a panacea.
“They do assist some people in the road to recovery but cannot be used in isolation.
“Other forms of therapy- different forms of counselling (which is not an easy option) are also essential in helping people to recover.
“Anti-depressants are widely prescribed and there is an argument that they are too readily prescribed. GPs, however, face difficult decisions.
“We want to help people, the support services although improving are still inadequate; mental health still has an enormous stigma attached to it and we have certainly not invested in good mental health services.
“It's not a fashionable branch of medicine. In other words with a service that is imperfect, to be kind, and frankly unacceptable, to be unkind, we are trying to help increasing numbers of people with mental health difficulties.
“There is still a disconnect between mental health services, social services and primary care which allows people to fall between.”
He added: “We as general practitioners certainly have a responsibility but we cannot put in place the integrated structures that are needed.
“All of us are drowning under the demand.
“We need more responsive child and adolescent services, continuing expansion of non drug therapies - counselling, talking and support services with easier and timely response to referrals. There have, to be fair, been recent improvements in this field, mainly led by the Integrated Care Partnership.”
Dr Black, who is chairperson of the British Medical Association for Northern Ireland, said the statistics showing an increase in anti-depressant use were a cause for concern.
Dr. Black believes ‘underlying factors that have contributed to this rise’ locally; Derry has high levels of mental health issues due to adverse affects brought about by years of conflict.
“Nowadays, people are also more willing to come forward to their GP with mental health problems than they would have a few years ago, and GPs also work very hard to make sure that cases of depression are not missed.
“In general, mental health problems have increased in society and the health service is doing its best to keep up with patient needs while facing unprecedented financial challenges.
“Public health is the foundation of a healthy society and the structures and processes underpinning this are crucial to its successful delivery and effectiveness.”
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