Objective

To describe the nature and distribution of mental health professionals working on site in general practices.

Design-Postal questionnaire and telephone interview survey.

Setting-English and Welsh general practices

Subject-1880 general practitioners, of whom 1542 (82%) responded.

Main outcome measures-Prevalence, types, and distribution of mental health professionals working on site among general practices.

Factors predicting the presence of mental health professonals on site.

Results

The number of practices reporting the presence on site of each type of professional were 528 for community psychiatric nurses; 266 for practice counsellors; 177 for clinical psychologists; 132 for psychiatrists; 96 for psychiatric social workers; and 45 for psychotherapists.