19/02/2025 11:06:17

DeStress GP eLearning: Addressing Poverty-Related Mental Distress

Blue Stream Academy is pleased to announce the release of a new DeStress eLearning resource, hosted on behalf of the University of Exeter. This eLearning resource is now available through the GP eLearning and Management Platform.

Click here to contact Blue Stream Academy's friendly team for more information on how to set this up as a group training session on your organisation’s account.

What is DeStress?

DeStress is an interdisciplinary research programme exploring the links between poverty and mental health. The University of Exeter has worked with patients and healthcare providers to understand how patients experiencing poverty-related mental distress can be better supported within primary care and have co-developed resources which enable this.

During the development phase, nearly 450 healthcare professionals from approximately 50 practices successfully completed the training, offering extremely positive feedback.

About the DeStress Project

Mental health care frequently reinforces health inequalities – both in terms of poor access and the over-medicalisation of potentially harmful drugs. Antidepressant prescribing is high in many economically disadvantaged areas of England and people are taking antidepressants for longer periods of time than in the past.

Although antidepressants can be helpful for some people, their effectiveness in improving patient health and wellbeing is limited, particularly for non-severe forms of depression and mental distress. Antidepressants can have significant and often unwelcome side effects including weight gain, sexual dysfunction, insomnia, nausea, diarrhoea and ‘emotional blunting’ which can reduce a person’s motivation and capacity for social connection. Research has also found that some people experience harmful withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop taking antidepressants.

Patients have told the DeStress research team that they feel that the prescribing of antidepressants is often inappropriate and disempowering when the causes of their distress are underpinned by problems that are mainly social (e.g. loneliness), environmental (e.g. poor housing) or economic (e.g. unemployment, debt) in nature.

At the same time, many GPs feel unsatisfied prescribing antidepressants when they do not think they will be of benefit to their patient. However, they also report feeling conflicted and confused over how else to support patients with ‘non-medical’ problems and, with few alternative options, they often continue to prescribe.

Supporting Patients Experiencing Poverty-Related Mental Distress Training Development

In response, the DeStress research team has worked with community partners (people with lived experience) and with GPs to understand what people experiencing mental distress caused by adverse socio-economic circumstances would find helpful from a consultation and what factors influence how GPs respond.

Using feedback from over 500 health professionals and 100 patients, they have co-developed an online training resource called DeStress-II which helps GPs and their wider practice teams understand when antidepressant prescribing may be inappropriate and when non-pharmaceutical support (e.g. talking therapy or referral to a link worker who can connect a patient to local community groups) is likely to be more beneficial to their patient.

This resource has been tested in thirty GP practices across England and received very positive feedback from patients and health providers, demonstrating its feasibility and acceptability within primary care.

The DeStress II training has been accredited by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the DeStress development team have created a facilitation manual to support the training.

What Does the eLearning Resource Cover?

This one-hour eLearning resource helps primary health care teams to better support patients presenting with mental distress caused by poverty-related problems. Co-developed by GPs, patients and researchers, it highlights how small changes within consultations can increase patient trust, engagement and shared decision making (SDM), improve effective practice team working and explore alternatives to prescribing anti-depressants.

How Does this eLearning Resource Work?

This eLearning resource takes around one hour to complete and has been designed to be accessed in a group setting with reflective discussion encouraged throughout. A facilitation manual guide is provided to assist the individual running the group session. Upon completion via the Blue Stream Academy GP eLearning and Management Platform, every attendee will receive a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) certificate.

Click here to speak to a member of the team for more information on how to set this up as a group training session on your organisation’s account.

How do I access Blue Stream Academy’s GP Training Courses?

Blue Stream Academy’s GP eLearning Platform and Management Platform hosts 140+ high quality training courses, developed specifically for professionals working within general practice. Each of our GP online training courses is developed by our team of in-house eLearning developers and meticulously reviewed and championed by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

Click here to request further information or a personalised patient-list size quote for the GP eLearning and Management Platform.

Not a General Practice Organisation?

Blue Stream Academy also hosts a range of eLearning and Management Platforms suitable for a variety of health services. These include:

• Private and urgent care providers (suitable for organisations such as out of hours providers, aesthetics clinics, specialist care providers, scan clinics, ambulance and air ambulance organisations, and much more).
• Hospices and palliative care providers.
• Dentists, dental nurses, dental hygiene practitioners, and dental practices.
• Health and social care providers (such as care homes, home care providers and domiciliary care agencies, supported living services, and many more).