Report calls for new national group to support people with severe mental illness

By The Press Association25th October 2016News EnglandMental Health, News England, Vulnerable Adults

More must be done to improve the life expediency of people who suffer from severe mental illnesses, a new report states.

People with severe mental illness (SMI), such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, have a 10 to 20 years shorter life expectancy than the general population.

This means that people with a SMI have a life expectancy equal to that of the general population of the 1950s.

They are also more likely to have physical ill-health, and are more likely to be obese or smokers.

The new report – from the Royal Colleges of Psychiatrists, Pathologists, Physicians, GPs, Nursing, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Public Health England and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society – sets out a series of recommendations which highlight how adults with SMI can receive the same standards of physical healthcare as the general population and reduce the risk of premature death.

The report calls for a new national group with experts from across the health sector to address and monitor the situation.

Meanwhile, all local health bodies should set out how they plan to care for the physical needs of such patients.

And training for healthcare staff should be reviewed to ensure that all workers are able to help the physical needs for patients with a severe mental health issue.

Professor Dame Sue Bailey, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said: “Health professionals should have the same ambitions for the physical health of people with severe mental illness as for the general population.

“The ambition of this report is to provide a focused programme of actions that can be taken across the system – from training to leadership and best practice in care provision, to reduce preventable premature mortality in this vulnerable group.”

Samantha Nicklin, head of campaigns and public affairs at the charity Rethink Mental Illness, said: “This report demonstrates an encouraging recognition of the urgent need to treat physical and mental health as two sides of the same coin.

“There are a number of factors at play, which are contributing to the current situation whereby the lives of people affected by a mental illness such as schizophrenia are being cut short.

“These include a lack of physical health checks, cases where people’s physical health is overlooked or dismissed as a manifestation of their mental illness, and lastly the side-effects of anti-psychotic medications which can cause extreme weight gain, increasing the risk of conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

“By outlining changes that need to be made amongst healthcare professionals to improve the physical healthcare for people with a mental illness, this report is clearly a step in the right direction.

“However, it is also important that steps are taken to ensure that everyone affected by a mental illness understands the treatment options available to them, and their possible side-effects, so that they can make an informed decision about their mental health care and take appropriate steps to mitigate any impact on their physical health.”

An NHS spokesman said: “We agree that providers of mental health services should also pay careful attention to the physical health needs of patients with severe mental illness.

“It makes sense to introduce physical health checks and to get treatment started while individuals are admitted to hospital or in other healthcare settings.

“To reduce the gap in mortality, the NHS is putting in extra funding to deliver physical health checks for people with SMI. Our aim is to double the proportion of people with SMI getting these screenings over the next two years.”