Mental health should be given as much weight as physical health, BMA says

The BMA is calling for equal value to be placed on mental and physical health, particularly that of the most vulnerable members of society.

Its report says that the physical health problems of patients with mental illness are often not properly dealt with and that the mental health of patients with physical illnesses is also often neglected.1

The association points out that in comparison with the general population men with mental health problems die, on average, 20 years earlier and that women die 15 years earlier. Although this shortened life expectancy reflects higher rates of suicide and of accidental and violent deaths, around 60% of excess mortality among people with severe mental illness is due to physical health problems, the report says.

This excess morbidity and premature mortality predominantly results from poorer diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of physical health problems in patients with mental health problems and intellectual disability. Recent cuts to mental health budgets have exacerbated the problem, the report says.

The report also says that a diagnosis of a long term physical condition can also have a detrimental effect on a patient’s mental health. Over four million people in England and 600 000 in Scotland with a long term physical illness also have a mental health problem.

The BMA is calling for a range of measures, including better training for medical trainees and doctors. It says that undergraduate and postgraduate medical training should shift from teaching mental health separately in a module format towards integrating mental health and intellectual disability into the core curriculum. In addition, all healthcare professionals should undertake mental health and intellectual disability awareness training as part of their continuing professional development. Other recommendations include:

• All hospitals should have a liaison psychiatry service and intellectual disability liaison service

• All mental health trusts should appoint a liaison physician in psychiatric wards

• Intellectual disability, mental health, and physical healthcare services should be better integrated, to ensure clear pathways of care, and

• A national review of mortality among people with intellectual disabilities and people with a mental illness should be established.

Sheila Hollins, chairwoman of the BMA’s Board of Science, said, “It is deeply concerning that mental health in the UK is not universally held in the same regard as patients’ physical health, nor does it receive comparable levels of funding. There would be an outcry if patients with a physical illness were denied treatment or care due to cuts in funding, yet this is what we are seeing for those patients suffering from mental illness.”