Presentation:
Integrating physical health into routine practice in mental healthcare
The seeds of this health inequality are evident early, and, in youth with first episode psychosis, antipsychotic medication initiation induces rapid deterioration in metabolic health.
The “Keeping the Body in Mind” (KBIM) program, Sydney, Australia has developed a multi-disciplinary integrated program for screening, prevention and intervention to address cardiometabolic health in psychosis.
The KBIM program commenced in youth and has been extended to adult mental health populations and now embedded in routine care. Future focus should be on implementation strategies to achieve this at scale as a means to close the gap for people living with psychosis.
Professor Jackie Curtis
Executive Director | Mindgardens Neuroscience Network
Clinical Lead, Youth Mental Health | SESLHD
Conjoint Professor | UNSW
Professor Curtis is Executive Director of the Mindgardens Neuroscience Network. She is a psychiatrist, and Clinical Lead of Youth Mental Health at the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District – one of the four founding partners in Mindgardens along with UNSW Sydney, Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and the Black Dog Institute
Her research and clinical work over several decades has focused on early psychosis and youth mental health, including improving the cardiometabolic health of people living with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, with the aim of reducing health inequalities and increasing life expectancy.
Dr Curtis is also Conjoint Professor in the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UNSW, Sydney.