A recent project between NHS England and NHS Improvement South East, Health Education England and the Charlie Waller Trust, has been featured in the journal Practice Nurse.

People with severe mental illness are likely to die up to 25 years earlier than the general population. Research shows that 75% of these cases are caused by preventable physical illnesses.

Our 30 minute training film provides guidance to primary care professionals on how to reduce the risk of people with severe mental illness dying from preventable physical conditions. It outlines best practice and can be viewed at: www.southeastclinicalnetworks.nhs.uk/phsmi/ alongside additional training handouts and facilitator notes.

The training has been endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing and is featured on their website.

And the project, led by Dr Sheila Hardy who developed the training, has now been featured in the latest edition of Practice Nurse – as the front page story and across a five page article:

You can download the full article here.

You can watch the training film here. An accompanying handout and facilitator notes are also available to download.

It is incredibly sad that every year many people with severe mental illness are dying from preventable physical illnesses.

We hope this online training will enable healthcare professionals to access the information they need to provide ongoing support to those individuals who need it, and in turn reduce preventable illnesses and deaths.

Dr Sheila Hardy