Severe mental illness (SMI) refers to a diagnosis of psychotic conditions which severely impair a person’s ability to carry out daily tasks, and impact on employment and relationships.
It includes conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar, and major depression which is either treatment-resistant or where the person also experiences psychotic symptoms. SMI can also include anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and personality disorders, if the person experiences symptoms with severe impact on their day-to-day life.
Conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar and severe depression can severely reduce a person’s ability to carry out daily tasks, reduce employment opportunities and impair relationships. People with SMI have a life expectancy on average 10-20 years shorter than the general population, in part because poor mental health may lead to poor physical health.
Unlike other areas of medicine, there is a severe lack of truly novel treatments for SMIs. So, the outcomes and recovery rates for people who live with these conditions also haven’t changed. Diagnosis is typically symptom-based, because there’s not enough understanding about what causes SMI and what happens in the body when someone experiences these conditions.
We champion the voices of people with lived experience (PWLE) in research. Patient and public contributors helped to design the MHP and they continue to guide the platform. You may see this referred to as Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement, or PPIE for short.
All our hubs involve PWLE. This may include co-production of research, advisory roles, participatory research, feedback mechanisms and dissemination of findings. Read more from each hub on the individual hub pages and their websites, where available.
We are a platform dedicated to SMI research, and so we don’t offer treatments or support directly. If you are struggling with mental health, please consider getting in touch with your GP or a psychiatrist.
Below are some resources which may be helpful:
- Contact Samaritans online or on the phone
- Text Shout any time of day
- Find out more from Mind
We want our research to make changes for people with SMI as soon as possible. So, we want to work with trusted partners in industry to turn research findings into real-world impact. Here’s some of the benefits of working together:
- Knowledge sharing: industry professionals can share insights and trends that inform academic research, while academics can contribute cutting-edge research methodologies and findings.
- Innovation acceleration: the support of industry can make exciting new ideas in research into reality. This could be a new app to support people with SMI,
- Skills development: working with industry through co-funded programs allows early career researchers to gain experience and skills that are in demand, making them more employable. Internships and co-op programs are effective examples of this collaboration.