The review has highlighted the need for increased attention in bridging service delivery gaps to enable equitable access to supportive care for people with respiratory problems and pre-existing serious mental illness. There is a particular need for early detection, comprehensive monitoring of respiratory function.
Summary
People with serious mental illness are known to die prematurely. Excess mortality in this population is largely attributable to common physical health conditions. Dying from a respiratory disease is one of the main causes.
Less is known about supportive and palliative care provision for people with respiratory problems and pre-existing serious mental illness.
Project aims
This review aimed to identify recent advances in care provision for people with respiratory problems and pre-existing serious mental illness to ease symptom burden and reduce the risk of premature mortality.
Project activity
We performed systematic searches across a broad range of health and care databases for relevant literature published after 2018.
We identified eight papers to include in the review. All of the studies used observational designs as opposed to studies testing interventions.
From the findings we generated themes that we presented graphically in addition to a written description.
What we found and what this means
We identified supportive care needs for people with respiratory problems and pre-existing serious mental illness that include:
- Interventions to promote healthy behaviours and to reduce harm from unhealthy lifestyles (e.g. smoking);
- Periodic respiratory health checks to support early detection and early diagnosis of respiratory conditions;
- Proactive and comprehensive monitoring of chronic respiratory conditions to respond to changing priorities of care;
- Equitable access to the best available treatments.
Integrated and coordinated care across sectors is needed to align care priorities to ease the burden of comorbid diseases and reduce the prevalence of early mortality in people with serious mental illness experiencing respiratory problems.
The review has been published in Current Opinion in Supportive & Palliative Care.
We have contacted our local trust to discuss opportunities for increased monitoring of respiratory function in mental health settings.
Who was involved?
Principle Investigator
Dr Guy Peryer (G.Peryer@StChristophers.org.uk)
Researchers and institutions
- Professor Morag Farquhar (M.Farquhar@uea.ac.uk), University of East Anglia
- Sylvia Barnes, University of East Anglia
Contact us
Dr Guy Peryer, G.Peryer@StChristophers.org.uk
