The HELPS Toolkit – a tool to promote the physical health of residents in psychiatric facilities

Background/Objectives: Studies from several countries have shown that residents in psychiatric and social care facilities, compared with the general population, have a higher prevalence of somatic illness and reduced life expectancy due to physical illness. An unhealthy lifestyle, living conditions, medication side-effects, and a lack of physical health monitoring are regarded as the main causes of high somatic morbidity. But up to now only little research has addressed the physical co-morbidity in mentally ill. There is a lack of knowledge across Europe on interventions that aim at reducing somatic morbidity an…