[Collaborative somatic care for patients with severe mental illness].

Patients with severe mental illness have an accumulation of risk factors for physical diseases like cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus and COPD. These patients receive suboptimal care in the Netherlands. A major barrier to optimal care is the lack of collaboration between mental health professionals and general practitioners.

Evaluation of health promotion programmes in severe mental illness: theory and practice.

Health promotion programmes for patients with severe mental illness (HPP) are not uniformly evaluated. We discuss the evaluation of HPP in theory and practice, as a prerequisite for future uniform evaluation. We explored the expected outcome and mechanism of HPP in the current literature.

Improvement of care for the physical health of patients with severe mental illness: a qualitative study assessing the view of patients and families.

Background: Patients with severe mental illness (SMI) experience more physical comorbidity than the general population. Multiple factors, including inadequate seeking of healthcare and health care related factors such as lack of collaboration, underlie this undesirable situation. To improve this situation, the logistics of physical health care for patients with SMI need to be changed.

Is somatic health screening in patients with severe mental illness of added value?

Purpose: To evaluate the added value of somatic screening for patients with severe mental illness over regular care.

Design And Methods: We compared the information on somatic health problems collected by screening with the general practitioner (GP) files (n = 118).

Findings: The mean number of somatic health problems detected with somatic health screening was significantly higher than those noted in GP records (p < .

Gaps in health care for the somatic health of outpatients with severe mental illness.

The physical health of outpatients with severe mental illness (SMI) can be improved by changes in the health-care system. Analysis of current practice is necessary to develop these strategies. We compared the number of somatic health problems of outpatients with SMI with the frequency of consulting a general practitioner (GP).