Physical health check call for severely mentally ill

Retiring SANE executive director Barbara Hocking said patients with serious mental illnesses had worse physical health than the general population and would benefit from early screening for chronic physical illness.

“The best idea would be to screen people to pick up signs of symptoms early on so that these can be prevented,” she said.

“GPs will say the last thing we need is another item number, but if we don’t give them that, it is discouraging for people to spend that bit longer doing those checks.”

Dr Morton Rawlin, chair of the RACGP’s General Practice Mental Health