People with severe mental illness have high rates of co-morbid serious medical illnesses, such as cancer and heart failure, contributing to the 25-year gap in life expectancy compared to those without severe mental illness. There is a broad consensus among psychiatric policy experts that integrating psychiatric treatment into serious illness care can improve outcomes for individuals with co-morbid physical and psychiatric illness. 

This article explores differences in gender and geography surrounding serious mental illness in inmates and shortcomings in jail screening mechanisms. Incarcerated women in rural jails have higher rates of serious mental illness compared to men and women in urban jails, and are more likely to be disproportionately impacted by inefficient use of jail mental health resources. 

The Way Forward features judges, advocates and doctors proving that assisted outpatient treatment is a way to free those with severe mental illness.

The warm summer months have finally returned, and we are all looking forward to spending some time outdoors with the company of a good book. Here are some of the books about #SMI that members of the Treatment Advocacy Center team are reading right now. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do. 

People with severe mental illness are especially vulnerable to being victimized. Rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are also high among people with severe mental illness. New research suggests that an evidence-based treatment for PTSD, narrative exposure therapy, is also effective for treating PTSD in people with severe mental illness in an outpatient setting. 

Smoking inequalities between people with severe mental illness and people without continued to increase during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Research Roundup is a monthly public service of the Office of Research and Public Affairs. Each edition describes a striking new data point about severe mental illness and summarizes recently published research reports or developments. 

Sexual and gender minority (SGMs) individuals are at a higher risk for developing psychiatric disorders. More research is needed on SGM individuals with serious mental illness, and affirmative treatment models need to be incorporated to eliminate barriers to healthcare.

College can be a stressful time for all students, especially for those with severe mental illness. The results of these studies support the idea that with the proper support, individuals with severe mental illness can succeed at school and in the workplace.

As we enter Mental Health Awareness Month, it is important to consider all that we still need to know about the most severe psychiatric disorders. The total number of people who live with a condition is one of the most basic epidemiological statistics, but this data remains elusive for severe mental illness. Beyond personal experiences, mental health awareness is only as good as the information on which it is based.