Exploring the feasibility of new Dutch mental health policy within a large primary health care centre: a case study

Background. A reform of Dutch mental health care aimed to substitute care from specialized care to general practice. Since 1 January 2014, Dutch general practitioners (GPs) are no longer allowed to refer patients without a psychiatric disorder to mental health care. Patients with non-complex psychological problems should be treated within general practice. Objective. To explore the feasibility of the Dutch mental health policy. Methods. We conducted an observational case study in a primary health care centre in 2014. The health care centre was a convenience sample; the participating GPs reorganized mental health care in line with the upcoming policy, and invited the researchers to monitor their referrals. We assessed how many patients with mental health problems (n = 408) were allocated to policy-concordant treatment. Additionally, 137 patients (33%) completed a follow up assessment on mental health problems 3 months after baseline. Results. The majority of the patients were allocated to treatment in line with the policy. Almost half of the patients (42%) were treated in a setting that was exactly policy-concordant, while the other half (47%) was treated in a setting that was even less specialized than was allowed. In general, patients showed improvement after 3 months, regardless of (non) policy-concordant treatment. Attrition rate after 3 months was high, probably due to the practical study design. Conclusion. There is potential for substitution of mental health care. Since the studied health care centre was specialized in mental health care, further research should explore if similar results can be found in other general practices.