Severe mental illness and physical health care

Patients with severe mental illness (SMI) have an increased risk of morbidity and mortality, with a reduction in life expectancy of up to 25 years. Despite clinical guidelines for routine physical health checks, there remains a gap in the efficient provision of physical health care for patients with SMI. Through conducting a literature search, this study aims to investigate the factors affecting the physical health care provided in both primary and secondary services for patients with SMI. There were several main areas identified: lack of monitoring of physical health, barriers to provision, ambiguity of job roles, lack of training and poor communication between services. Communication and information sharing is highlighted by both primary and secondary care providers as a barrier to providing efficient physical health care, and an improvement in this area may improve the physical health care of patients with SMI.