The impact of service wait times on General Practitioners' treatment of adolescent depression and anxiety

BackgroundGeneral Practitioners (GPs) play a key role in referring adolescents with depression and/or anxiety to mental health specialists and services, but their capacity to do so may be compromised by service wait times. It is unclear how GPs manage the mental healthcare of adolescents when the choice of treatment is not available. This study aimed to explore GPs self-reported referral practices to mental health specialists and services for adolescent depression and/or anxiety, as well as their perceived knowledge, acceptability, and impacts of the wait times for these. MethodsA cross-sectional online survey of 192 GPs in Australia who self-identified as treating adolescents (12 to 17 years old) with depression and/or anxiety. ResultsGPs most frequently referred adolescents with depression and/or anxiety to psychologists. However, the mean estimated wait time for psychologists was 57.26 days (SD: 47.91, Mdn: 45.0, range: 5-365), which was four times the proposed acceptable wait time (M: 14.66 days, SD: 8.70). Nearly all GPs (81.8%) had increased their level of care for adolescents due to long waits but had limited training in and knowledge of strategies for effective self-management. ConclusionsGPs in Australia lack information on the wait times for adolescent mental health specialists and services, despite frequent referrals. Greater knowledge of wait times, training in wait time approaches, and self-directed digital interventions may help to enhance the quality of primary care provided to adolescents.