mental health

Bringing together physical and mental health
1 2 3 4
5 6 7
Appendix G: Physical health check protocol for patients with mental health
problems in Bradford and Airedale
Overview
In the Bradford and Airedale area, a recent initiative seeks to ensure that anyone
with a serious mental illness is offered a regular physical health check. The checks
follow a protocol using a digital template and are designed to pick up any emerging
health problems and help the patient respond to them. The first phase of the project
started in primary care, in approximately 80 GP practices in the area. The second
phase involved rolling the checks out into the community mental health teams and
hospitals run by Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust.
The physical health checks are designed to reduce diagnostic overshadowing and
ensure that a person’s serious mental illness does not prevent them receiving the
same kind of advice and support other patients would receive about how to look
after their physical health.
Service description
There are more than 5,000 people with a severe mental illness diagnosis among
Bradford and Airedale’s patient population. This group goes through annual physical
health checks in their GP practice if the GP remains their lead clinician. Patients
receiving care from the community mental health team are provided with the checks
in one of five community physical health clinics. There are also around 200 beds for
patients who need inpatient mental health care locally; patients in those settings
have the health check provided in situ.
The physical health check runs through key indicators, measuring body mass index
(BMI), blood pressure, pulse and respiration, with an ECG and relevant blood tests.
Care professionals also discuss lifestyle with patients, covering smoking, dietary and
exercise habits, and sexual function. Data entry is made easy through the template,
and GPs respond to any adverse results. In primary care, the measurements and data
recording are usually done by practice nurses or health care assistants and used to
inform a consultation with the GP thereafter.
Nearly all the follow-up care is carried out by the same teams leading care for the
patient. However, management of high levels of prolactin (a frequent side effect
Appendices: case study site profiles 92