Addressing the preventable toll of chronic disease and premature death among people with a serious mental illness
Kevin Humphries is the NSW Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Healthy Lifestyles and Minister for Western NSW.The Minister will discuss work being undertaken at a national level, commenced by a recent national summit formed to discuss the physical health of people with a mental illness and the high rates of chronic and preventable disease.
The summit was held in response to increasing concerns within the community and also growing evidence which shows that one in five Australians experience a mental health difficulty in any given year and the physical health of people living with a mental health difficulty is worse than those in the general community on just about every measure. Of particular focus is that people with a severe mental illness live between 10-32 years less than the general population. People with illnesses such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia have heart-related problems, diabetes and obesity at much higher rates than the rest of the community.