It is now recognised that between 25% and 30% of patients presenting in primary care are suffering from psychological problems, which while they are not severe enough to require specialist referral, nevertheless make considerable demands on the primary health care team. In addition, the recent shift to care in the community for sufferers of severe long-term mental illness has added to the tasks of the primary care system.

These tasks include:

Primary prevention: the identification and modification of known risk factors for the development of illness.

Secondary prevention: the early identification of problems, and interventions to prevent their progression.

Tertiary prevention: preventing the development of complications for patients with established conditions, and of recurrence in patients with relapsing conditions.

The prevention of mental illness in primary care is therefore an important topic which has not been well addressed in the past.

This book is intended as a handbook for general practitioners, other members of the primary health care team, mental health professionals working in primary care, and academics and educationalists.

The contributors have reviewed the current state of research in the prevention of mental illness and emphasised what practical measures primary health care teams, and mental health professionals working in primary care, can take to practise prevention.