Major research grant to extend physical health care for people living with mental illness

Mindgardens Neuroscience Network, and its Executive Director Professor Jackie Curtis, will lead a world-first research program to develop personalised physical health care for people living with severe mental illness, following the award of a prestigious grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

The five-year trial will create an Integrated Peer-supported Physical Health Service (IPPHS) which will aim to produce sustained improvements in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases including diabetes.

These conditions, which often occur as side-effects of mental health medications, are largely responsible for the poorer physical health and reduced life-expectancy – by up to 15 years – of people who live with complex mental health disorders such as schizophrenia.

The $2.997 million trial, which will take place in urban, regional and rural mental health clinics in south eastern Sydney and in Tasmania, will employ peer workers – people with their own experience of mental health challenges – to help participants navigate through the care system and find the most suitable health supports.

General practitioners and nurse practitioners will also work directly with the specialist mental health clinics, screening patients for health problems and prescribing medications such as cholesterol-lowering therapies.

Patients will also join with clinicians and researchers to develop a mobile phone app to monitor their physical and mental health.

“This trial presents a unique opportunity to deeply integrate physical health supports into mental health services." 

“We know people who experience severe mental illness miss out on basic physical health care because of barriers like having to make separate appointments and the cost of GP co-payments. This is a huge injustice, and the trial gives us the opportunity to learn what we can achieve when we eliminate those barriers.”