Reducing Health Disparities for People with Serious Mental Illness

People with serious mental illness die, on average, twenty-five years earlier than those in the population without a serious mental illness. This disparity is largely due to treatable medical conditions that remain unaddressed due to factors at the client, treatment, provider, clinic, and system levels of health and mental health service delivery. This article describes the development, initial implementation, and feasibility of the Bridge, a peer-staffed care linkage model situated in a mental health clinic that addresses barriers at multiple levels of service delivery by connecting clients to physical health services and developing client skills that result in self-management of health care. The Bridge was developed collaboratively with interventionists, clinic staff, and mental health peers and relies largely on an in vivo approach.