Our priority outcome: To improve the physical health of people with mental health issues
Life expectancy for people with severe mental illness is 15–20 years lower than UK averages, mainly due to preventable physical illness.
Context and key challenges
People living with severe mental illness (SMI) face one of the UK’s greatest health inequality gaps. Factors can include side effects of anti-psychotic medication, lifestyle, and difficulties with mainstream health services. People with mental health needs are statistically less likely to have routine checks (blood pressure, weight and cholesterol) that might detect early symptoms of physical health conditions; and less likely to get help with giving up smoking, drinking less alcohol, or healthier diet and exercise.
What we offer
Physical activity is an important part of the ‘treatment’ for many of the people we support. Whether it’s walking, gardening, yoga or sports, being physically active can play an important role in being mentally healthy. We work with many voluntary and community groups – such as the Mosaic Clubhouse, Loughborough Farm and Brixton Pumas – as well as Social Prescribers who work with GPs to ‘prescribe’ such physical activities for those who would benefit.
We also try to ensure that we carry out the routine health checks mentioned above for those we support, rather than expecting GPs to always do them.
Our impact
We continue to focus on ensuring the people we support have regular health checks. These checks cover: blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, weight, smoking and alcohol. In 2023/24 we completed these checks with 68% of people with serious mental illness, an 11% increase on our previous year’s performance, well over the national target of 60%.
Our next steps
We will build upon our stronger relationships developed through our Primary Care Alliance Network to support more people to thrive in their communities. This network allows us to work more closely with GPs, Social Prescribers, and local voluntary and community groups.
We aim to continue to increase the upward trajectory of people who receive routine health checks by regularly reviewing data to identify who needs them.
Can you help us?
We have a short survey that anyone who use our services will be invited to complete (online or on paper). It will take less than three minutes and will tell us how well we are doing and what we need to improve.