Transcript A web-based resource for integrated health care

Linda Gask
University of Manchester
on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
No health without mental health...
 In 2011 we began to
develop a web-based
resource for integrated
physical and mental
health care.
 Developed from the
Academy of Royal
Medical Colleges ALERT
report
What does ALERT stand for?
 Awareness
 Liaison psychiatry services
 Engaging patients and carers
 Re-organisation of services, commissioning and
quality standards
 Training and Education
Partnership between:
 Royal College of Psychiatrists (host)
 Royal College of General Practitioners
 Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
 Royal College of Physicians
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improvingpmh
Four sections: more to follow
 Medically unexplained symptoms
 Long term conditions
 Physical health in adults
 Children and young people
Medically unexplained
symptoms
 Some people have physical symptoms which
cannot be fully explained, and which may have a
psychological dimension. Medically unexplained
symptoms (MUS) account for 20% of new
presentations to primary care and for up to 30%-40%
of newly referred medical outpatients. This also
contributes to excess utilization of healthcare
resources – recently estimated at more than an extra
£3.1 billion per year
Long term conditions
 Physical illness is significantly associated with
increased prevalence of mental illness and poorer
outcomes, and with increased utilization of resources,
particularly in the common chronic diseases.
 Patients with depressive disorder are twice as likely to use
emergency department services as those without
depression.
 In diabetes, total health expenditure is four and a half
times higher for individuals with depression than for those
without depression.
Long term conditions
 In chronic heart disease, depressed patients have
higher rates of complications and are more likely to
undergo invasive procedures.
 People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD) who are also depressed have longer hospital
stays and increased symptom burden.
Physical health in adults
 mental illness is associated with poor physical
health, and this is a major factor in health
inequalities.
 On average, people with mental illness die five to ten
years younger than the general population.
Children and young people
 Emotional disorders are 2 to 5 times as common
in children with physical illness.
 Paediatricians see many children with complex and
unexplained symptoms, or with an overlap between
mental and physical difficulties - particularly those
with complex, chronic or life limiting illness, self
harm, feeding disorders, those with post traumatic
effects of injury/burns.
 There is a close relationship between physical and
mental health particularly in adolescence, and in
patients with difficulties with adherence to treatment.
Link to site....
www.rcpsych.ac.uk/improvingpmh
Please ask your local mental health trusts to add this
link to their intranets!!!!
Site is now published
 Will be updated and reviewed regularly
 Comments, suggested links very welcome- details of
how to contact us are on the site
 We intend to extend coverage to other topics
Acknowledgements
 Editor: Linda Gask
 Section editors
 Medically Unexplained Symptoms
 Graham Ash
 Children and Young People
 Soumitra Datta
 Long Terms Conditions
 Alan Cohen
 Physical Health in Adults
 Irene Cormac and Geoff Marston