Improving Physical Health of People with Mental Illness: A Critical Reflection

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Critical reflection
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Author Note

1MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Poor physical health increases the risks of development of mental illness.
Simultaneously poor mental health is also found to create a negative impact on the physical
status of the person and results in an increased likelihood of developing comorbidities
(Halfon, Larson & Slusser, 2013). This essay will reflect on a program aimed at improving
physical health of people suffering from mental illnesses.
The program was named ‘No Mental Health without Physical Health’. The program
was formulated based on the existing data which suggest that patients suffering from severe
mental illness die up to 20 years earlier than the rest of the population. The purpose of the
program was aimed at taking positive actions for improving the physical health of individuals
living with mental disorders. The program was built with the aim of ensuring parity of esteem
between physical health and mental health, by providing equal attention to the physical health
problems of the affected individuals.
The basic purpose of conducting the program was the fact that patients reporting
mental health problems should always be empowered for making real progress towards
increasing their life expectancy and aligning it in line with the entire population (Mitchell,
2013). The need for maintaining a balance while implementing a holistic approach for
management of physical and mental health was also required (Kemp & Quintana, 2013). Poor
physical health in case of mental illness significantly impact the quality of lives, increase
healthcare demands, and generate negative consequences to the society (Richardson, Elliott
& Roberts, 2013).
We formulated the program following an approval from the hospital administration. The
interdisciplinary team comprised of physicians, nurses, psychologists, physical activity
coordinator and pharmacists, in addition to the service users. A plethora of methods and
assessments related to quality improvement were identified for assessing the problems and