People with serious mental illness (SMI) have poor health outcomes, in part because of inequitable access to quality health services. As a consequence, they have more preventable hospitalizations and higher mortality rates. 

 

Primary care is well suited to coordinate and manage care for this population; however, providers may feel ill-equipped to do so and patients may not have the support and resources required to coordinate their care. We lack a strong understanding of prevention and management of chronic disease in primary care among people with SMI as well as the context-specific barriers that exist at the patient, provider, and system levels.

 

This concurrent mixed methods study is being conducted in British Columbia and Ontario, and involves quantitative analyses of linked administrative data and in-depth qualitative interviews with people living with SMI and primary care providers.