Mental health

Introduction

At least one in four of us has mental health symptoms at any one time. These symptoms generally relate to problems like anxiety and depression. Many people feel that they are going ‘mad’ but can be reassured that they are not.

Measuring anxiety and depression

If you present with a cough, we can check your temperature and get a number from that, or we can listen to your chest and get an objective finding of a ‘clear chest’ or hear fluid noises suggesting an infection. Measuring mental health is more challenging. Responding to this, specialists devised various questionnaires that provide a way of measuring the patient’s distress.

• For depression, you can use the PHQ-9 questionnaire.
• For anxiety, you can use the GAD-7 questionnaire.

You can complete a questionnaire for each of these using the buttons at the bottom of this page.

Using these questionnaires will help you know the extent of your difficulties and, if you bring your results along to a consultation with your doctor, make that consultation more informed and more productive.

You can also use these questionnaires to monitor your symptoms. If you are thinking of stopping antidepressant medication, we encourage you not to simply stop taking it, but to reduce your dose in a stepped manner and use the PHQ-9 questionnaire to monitor your progress and consider whether it is safe for you to continue reducing the dose further.

Perinatal and postnatal depression

Are you pregnant or have you had a baby recently? About half of all patients with perinatal or postnatal depression are never diagnosed. There are both clinician and patient reasons for this.

Some clinicians don’t ask about symptoms and some patients do not disclose their symptoms. Some women are afraid that their baby will be taken off them – that is not going to happen. Others feel that they have failed in some way, that they should be so happy, but they’re not.

Please do not feel this way. Tell us your symptoms. Prompt action can help to get you back on an even keel. You can use the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to assess your symptoms by clicking here.

Alcohol problems

Alcohol is often related to mental health difficulties. Alcohol abuse can co-exist with other mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. When the patient has a dual mental health diagnosis (e.g. alcohol abuse and depression), it does not matter which problem came first – they both need treating in their own right.

You can use the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) to measure your alcohol habit. Don’t forget the major physical health problems that come from alcoholism – discuss this with your doctor.

Talking Therapies

You do not need a doctors referral to get free and confidential support for your mental health issues. 

NHS Wirral Talking Therapies is a free and confidential service, available to anyone who is aged 16+ and registered with a GP in the Wirral. Please click here for more information about this service.

Consulting your doctor about your mental health problems

To make your consultation more informative for the doctor and more productive for you, we ask you to complete the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 questionnaires that you can access using the buttons below.

Neither of the questionnaires store your scores. Make a note of your scores and then include them in your online form when contacting us.

Launch PHQ-9 questionnaire Launch GAD-7 questionnaire