The mental health charity Rethink is urging GPs to take a bigger role in the care of people with long term mental illness. Its latest report says that people with severe, long term psychiatric conditions are 15 times more likely than the general population to contract HIV, twice as likely to die from respiratory diseases, and approximately three times as likely to be smokers. However, these people are often overlooked by primary and secondary services alike.

“We are talking about people who have suffered from a severe mental illness for more than 10 to 15 years and have been in contact with services for a long period of time,” said …