Improving the of care of people with severe mental illness and type 2 diabetes
People with severe mental illness are x times more like to develop type 2 diabetes. This is the result of a complex interaction between the nature of the illness, aspects of the treatments provided, and lifestyle factors. Barts charity funded a team of researchers, led by Professor Alan Simpson, to investigate and identify the facilitators and barriers to improve self-management of diabetes in people with severe mental illness. Qualitative interview studies and quantitative surveys with service users and a range of healthcare staff has led to the publication of nine peer-reviewed publications and a knowledge exchange event attended by a range of service users, carers, clinicians, educators and policy makers to discuss the findings and suggest the next steps forward. We have obtained funding for two PhD students to continue work in this area and are exploring potential new studies.