Our previous ground breaking work identified that in England, people with mental health illness have a life expectancy that is on average 16 (women) or 19 (men) years shorter than those without. This difference is thought to be due to poorer access and provision of physical health services for those suffering from a mental health illness.
Starting on World Mental Health Day 2018, the Strategy Unit has been publishing monthly guest blogs to explore different views of the mental and physical health overlap. By gathering these different perspectives we hope to build on the increased awareness from our previous work, bringing more clarity to the specific challenges and to engage others to act for the benefit of those disadvantaged by the overlap.