About the Physical Health Checks for Severe Mental Illness programme

Improving access to physical health (Ph) checks for people with severe mental illness (SMI) is part of the NHS Long Term Plan, with the aim of 390,000 people with SMI receiving physical health checks by 2023/24. Physical health competency framework for mental health and learning disability settings.

In this 15 minute session we will:

• Explore why people with a Severe Mental Illness (SMI) experience side effects, gain weight and die prematurely.
• Look at progress on implementation of annual physical health checks for this cohort of patients.
• Share a case study and good practice tools developed to equip you to undertake annual physical health checks with optimum effectiveness and efficiency.

By the end of the session, learners will:

• Be aware of the importance of a full physical health check and the appropriate interventions based on the physical health check for this cohort of people.
• Have the confidence to take positive action to access this hard-to-reach population and in undertaking a full physical health check.

This course is aimed at Primary Care colleagues including clinicians equipped with the skills to deliver a full physical health check such as Health Care Support Workers, Practice Nurses and GPs, and be motivated to develop a key interest in a hard to reach population.

At the end of the session there will be a short quiz to test the learner’s knowledge.

Course content:

Section 1: Importance of physical health
Section 2: Tool
Section 3: Data
Section 4: Self assessment
Section 5: Key points

More information

NICE clinical guidelines CG185 and CG178 now requires a physical health check at 12 monthly intervals.

NICE Clinical Guidance CG 178 states:
‘The secondary care team should maintain responsibility for monitoring service user’s physical health and the effects of anti-psychotic medication for at least the first 12 months or until the person’s condition has stabilised, whichever is longer. Thereafter, the responsibility for this monitoring may be transferred to primary care under shared care arrangements.’

Useful resources:

Equally Well UK
RCP COVID-19 Providing Medication
HEE Physical Health Competency Framework
NHS Right Care Toolkit
NHS Futures Collaboration Platform
The Lester Tool – A Practical Toolkit – In special memory of the late Helen Lester. Her contribution to the development of the Lester Positive Cardiometabolic Health resource and her dedication to improving the lives of people and families affected by mental illness

How to access

In order to access the Physical Health Checks for Severe Mental Illness programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.

Register >

To view the Physical Health Checks for Severe Mental Illness programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.

View >

Not an NHS organisation?

If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.

To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.

Registering large numbers of users

If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Physical Health Checks for Severe Mental Illness programme, please contact elfh directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own LMS

For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.