The Commission’s Physical Health project has identified reform opportunities to improve the physical health of people with a lived experience of mental illness and/or problematic alcohol and other drugs use.
The project is a response to evidence that Queenslanders with a lived experience have a poorer health status, lower quality of life and reduced life expectancy as a result of preventable illness and chronic disease.
Serious physical health symptoms and chronic disease impede recovery and have significant implications for individuals and for the Queensland health system.
The project was designed to find avenues of systemic improvement in line with the Shifting minds: Queensland Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs Strategic Plan 2018-2023 Better Lives focus area, through addressing physical health disparities as barriers to social and economic participation.
Reform opportunities support the Commission’s commitment to the Equally Well National Consensus Statement for improving the physical health and wellbeing of people living with a mental illness in Australia.
The project identified 12 overarching themes in four categories of reform that align with holistic, person-centred approaches to physical and mental health and wellbeing. These are:
- Individual – protective factors, navigation
- Health service delivery – accountability, models of care, collaborative care
- System-wide – population health, place-based, partnerships
- Resource and enablers – funding and commissioning, workforce, digital health, research and evaluation.
The Commission will now engage and consult with people with lived experience of mental illness or problematic AOD use to gather their views and feedback on the identified reform opportunities.
