Role of graduate mental health workers within primary care.

The concept of primary healthcare graduate mental health workers came into being following the implementation of The NHS Plan (Department of Health, 2000) and the National Service Framework for Mental Health (DH, 1999). It is now generally agreed that service users must be consulted in order to fully understand and judge the effectiveness of this new role. It is this knowledge that can then position precisely where this new role will fit within the NHS's mental health organisational structure.