GPs' and child and adolescent psychiatry specialists' experiences of joint consultations in the GP's office: a qualitative study.

Background: The study is an exploration of a joint consultation model, a collaboration between general practitioners (GPs) and specialists from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Lillehammer, Norway.

Methods: A qualitative study based on two focus group interviews, one with participating GPs and one with participating specialists from the local CAMHS. Participants were five GPs, with work experience varying from 6 months to 20 years (four of them specialists in general medicine) and two CAMHS specialists-a psychiatrist and a psychologist-both with more than 20 years of experience.

[The role of the general practitioner in the health center].

Background: With the introduction of the list patient system, it has been suggested that routine examination of children should be transferred to the general practitioners (GPs). The aim of this study was to find out how the users of the public child health centres view the relationship between the child health centre and the GPs, and to find out whether parents would like their GPs to perform the routine examinations.

Material And Methods: A questionnaire was given to parents in a small Norwegian town who attended the child health centre during spring and summer 2003 and to the town's GPs.