Professor Russell Roberts
‘Why Australia is not an equally well country: What the poor physical health of people living with mental illness tells us about good mental health care, system governance and the design of health services’.
Every day in Australia 30 people with mental illness die prematurely of preventable physical health conditions. With a life expectancy gap of 20 years, people with severe mental illness are 11 times more likely to die of sudden cardiac failure, and eight times more likely to die prematurely due to cancer (even though the incidence of cancer is the same or lower than the general population). Chronic diseases cause 10 times more premature deaths than suicide for people with mental illness. Further, poor physical health has been identified as the factor most frequently associated with completed suicides.
The poor physical health and premature death of people living with mental illness highlights the failure of health systems and Australian health professionals to recognise and address the elevated risk of premature death for people living with mental illness.
This lecture is for clinicians, consumers, carers, mental health advocates and anyone concerned with enhancing equity of health outcomes for people with mental illness. Building on the most recent research into the nature, extent and underlying reasons for the life expectancy gap, it will propose ways, both at the clinician and systems level, to improve the physical health care and mental health care for people living with mental illness. It will also showcase some of the best Australian and international initiatives to improve the health and address the structural discrimination currently experienced by people with a lived experience of mental illness.
