Abstract: Mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and stress are highly reported among chronic disease patients. One of the associated screening tools is the Global Mental Health Assessment Tool (GMHAT) for primary care. This is a digitalized tool that assists in the mental health assessment of patients. The aim of the study is to assess the prevalence of mental illness using The Global Mental Health Assessment Tool ‐ Primary Care Version (GMHAT–PC) among diabetic and hypertensive patients visiting the chronic disease clinic at the Industry Health Center, Georgetown, Guyana from July to October 2024. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was utilized. A purposive sample of 106 diabetic and hypertensive patients were interviewed. The IRB, Ministry of Health, Guyana gave ethical approval. SPSS version 30.0 was used to analyze the data. The findings of the study are as follows: 45.28% of patients were between 65 to 75 years. 74.5% were females, 67.9% were East Indians, 52.8% had secondary education, 51.46% were married, and 86.8% were living with the family members. The GMHAT detected a 4.7% of anxiety and depression, whereas physicians diagnosed higher rates of depression (15%). 72.6% of patients were satisfied with the interview. The physician was satisfied with the tool. The findings suggest that the GMHAT-PC is feasible for screening mental illness among chronic disease patients in primary care. A similar study can be done where more health care professionals use the GMHAT-PC tool to screen chronic disease patients at various health centers in Guyana.

Keywords : Diabetes1, GMHAT-PC tool 2, Hypertension 3, Mental disorders 4.