Some mental health practitioners and heath care professionals are proposing ways to improve the physical health of individuals with mental illness, which could consequently help decrease mortality rates and rates of premature death. If primary care and mental health professionals pay attention to the physical ramifications of mental illness, the physical health of people with serious mental illness can be improved (32). Improved intervention practices could include engaging clients in preventive care, diagnosis, and management of serious physical illnesses and additional training for mental and physical health professionals to encourage communication about patient care (33). In Australia and Great Britain, health promotion programs and treatment improvements are being proposed for people with mental illness (33-35). In the United States, advance-practice nurses and consumer peer providers are being added to Assertive Community Treatment Programs to address physical health problems among people with serious mental illness (36).
