Those living with Severe Mental Illness (SMI)
Severe mental illness (SMI), such as psychosis and bipolar disorder, affects close to an estimated 551,000 people in England. These individuals have a life expectancy of up to 20 years shorter than the general population and evidence suggests that the mortality gap is continuing to widen. More info here.
Poor physical health is common in people with SMI with:
- many people experiencing at least one physical health condition at the same time as their mental illness
- frequent diagnoses of more than one physical health condition at the same time as their mental illness
People with severe mental illness are less likely to attain the Chief Medical Officers' (CMOs') recommended weekly physical activity guidelines when compared to the general population, yet physical activity can help improvements of physical health of those with SMI.
Evidence suggests that sedentary behaviour has direct effects on depression and mood and that regular movement should be implemented to prevent the negative effects and further to this, as little as 60mins of physical activity per week can prevent up to 17% of incident cases of depression
Physical activity also provides protection from other mental health concerns such as Anxiety. In particular, higher activity levels helps protect from agoraphobia and posttraumatic disorder
- Access further information and e-learning from the Royal College of Psychiatrists here
- Systematic review on all cross-sectional literature on the motivation for physical activity among people with SMI here
- Equally Well – Support, resources, research and a Charter to support physical health of people with mental health problems.
- MIND toolkit – A new toolkit created by MIND to support sport and physical activity for people with mental health problems.
Severe mental illness (SMI) and physical health inequalities (Public Health England)