Understanding and Improving Physical Health Services Utilisation among Individuals with Severe Mental Illness

Project Description

People with severe mental illness (SMI), such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder have a life expectancy of 10-20 years shorter than the general population, primarily due to preventable conditions like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Despite targeted NHS invitations for annual physical health checks, fewer than 50% of individuals with SMI attend these appointments, highlighting a need to explore reasons for low service utilisation.

This PhD aims to investigate both structural and interpersonal barriers that individuals with SMI face in accessing physical health services, including factors such as diagnostic overshadowing and the underestimation of mental health’s impact on physical health. It will also explore how psychological and social factors, like attitudes toward healthcare, affect help-seeking behaviours.

Guided by a lived experience PPI group, this mixed-methods PhD will involve three work packages:
• Work Package 1: Quantitative surveys to analyse healthcare utilisation patterns and attitudes towards service use among individuals with SMI.

• Work Package 2: Qualitative interviews with staff and service users to explore their lived experiences in providing and accessing health services, focusing on healthcare needs as well as barriers and facilitators to service access.

• Work Package 3: Informed by the first two packages, a co-produced theoretically informed intervention will be developed to address barriers, and improve access to physical health services in people with SMI.

Findings will provide insights into how healthcare systems can more effectively support individuals with SMI, reduce health disparities, and improve access to essential physical health care, ultimately reducing the morbidity-mortality gap in SMI.