Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Individuals suffering from severe mental illness (e.g., depression, schizophrenia) are less likely to receive equitable access and care for their physical health needs. Given that this population are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases including cancer, there is a need to think about how the specialized mental health services they access on a regular basis can help promote access and use of preventative health services. Recent surveys have found that individuals suffering from severe mental illness are more likely to receive suboptimal care which can lead to premature mortality. This planning project focuses on examining how specialized mental health services can help support preventative cancer screening for this population. By encouraging the uptake of preventative cancer screening, individuals can receive cancer diagnosis and treatment in a more timely manner, thereby promoting better quality of life. In order to identify the opportunities and challenges related to embedding preventative cancer screening into specialized mental health services, an environmental scan will be conducted. This will involve both reviewing the grey literature and conducting stakeholder consultations with clinicians, administrators and other health system leaders involved in supporting the health of this population. These stakeholders will be invited to provide their perspectives and experiences on embedding preventative cancer screening into these services, and the challenges that should be considered in doing so. These findings will collectively inform recommendations for building a sustainable model for supporting preventative cancer screening for individuals suffering from severe mental illness across Canada.