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The Health Service Use of Frequent Users of Telephone Helplines in a Cohort of General Practice Attendees with Depressive Symptoms

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Abstract

We examined the relationship between frequent use of telephone helplines and health service use over time in a cohort of 789 general practice attendees with depressive symptoms. Telephone helpline use (no use, non-frequent use, frequent use) was measured at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months and analysed using ordered logistic regression. Sixteen participants (2 %) reported frequent use of telephone helplines. Reporting frequent use was associated with visiting multiple general practitioners, using emergency services and visiting mental health specialists in the previous 3 months. Despite this pattern of service use, there was evidence that these services were not meeting the needs of frequent users of telephone helplines, as they were also more likely to report dissatisfaction with their access to health services compared to non-frequent and non-users of telephone helplines. Our findings suggest that a model of care which addresses the complex needs of frequent users of telephone helplines is needed.

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Acknowledgments

The data used for this paper was collected as a part of the diamond study which is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (ID: 299869, 454463, 566511 and 1002908) and the Victorian Centre for Excellence in Depression and Related Disorders, an initiative between beyondblue and the State Government of Victoria. We acknowledge the 30 dedicated GPs, their patients and practice staff for making this research possible. We thank the cohort participants for their ongoing involvement in the study. Ms Middleton is the holder of a National Health and Medical Research Council PhD scholarship (ID: 1055658) and an Ian Scott PhD scholarship awarded by Australian Rotary Health. We are also grateful for feedback and support from the staff at Lifeline Foundation, particularly Mr Alan Woodward. The preparation of this manuscript including the analysis was supported by the Lifeline Foundation with funding from Servier Australia. No funding body had a role in the study design; the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; the writing of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Practice, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, 200 Berkeley Street, Carlton, VIC, 3053, Australia

    Aves Middleton, Patty Chondros & Jane Gunn

  2. Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia

    Jane Pirkis & Bridget Bassilios

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  1. Aves Middleton
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  5. Jane Gunn
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Correspondence to Aves Middleton.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 4.

Table 4 List of explanatory variables included in the regression model with details on how they were coded and the time points at which they were measured
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Middleton, A., Pirkis, J., Chondros, P. et al. The Health Service Use of Frequent Users of Telephone Helplines in a Cohort of General Practice Attendees with Depressive Symptoms. Adm Policy Ment Health 43, 663–674 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-015-0680-7

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