The development of the serious mental illness physical Health Improvement Profile

People with serious mental illness (SMI), such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are more likely to suffer from a range of long-term physical conditions including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Consequently they will die 10–15 years earlier than the general population. Health services have failed to address this major health inequality because of a lack of consensus about the type and frequency of monitoring people with SMI require and a lack of knowledge and skills in the mental health workforce. We developed the SMI physical Health Improvement Profile to help mental health nurses profile the physical health of the SMI patients they work with and direct them towards the evidence base interventions available to address identified health problems.