A Great Resource for Serious Mental Illness

Perhaps you’ve heard the term “serious mental illness” before and wondered what it means. Aren’t all mental illnesses potentially “serious”?

A “serious mental illness” or “SMI” is defined as “a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities,” according to the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

The three diagnoses most commonly associated with SMI are schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. The NIMH estimates that in 2017 about 4.5% of US adults or around 11.2 million adults in the US had a serious mental illness. Therefore the SMI population is a subset of the more than 46.6 million adults (18.9% of the population) with any mental illness.

Having a serious mental illness can be associated with many significant health challenges, such as higher rates of psychiatric hospitalization, poorer response to treatment, greater rates of relapse, poorer overall health status, and dying younger than those without a serious mental illness due to more physical health complications. Also we know that large numbers of people who are homeless and in jails and prisons have a serious mental illness.

Not long ago, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) teamed up with the American Psychiatric Association and several other mental health organizations to launch an online resource for serious mental illness. It’s called SMI Adviser: A Clinical Support System for Serious Mental Illness. Let’s review some of the key features.

Presented both online and as an app (Apple and Google Play), SMI Adviser has several important goals:

  • Providing direct consultation to clinicians who treat people with SMI
  • Providing education for clinicians, patients and families about issues related to SMI
  • Supporting implementation and use of technology to improve the care of those with SMI
  • Supporting evidence-based, person-centered medication and psychosocial interventions for people with SMI and improving access to care

I encourage you to browse the website or app and explore the many resources and features. Depending on whether you’re a clinician, a person with SMI, or someone who cares about people with SMI, there’s something for everyone.

You will find both recorded and upcoming live webinars on a variety of topics related to assessment and treatment of SMI. There are also links to numerous print resources, including fact sheets, treatment guides, research articles, continuing education programs, links to other agencies and self-care coping tools. You can learn more about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder and many different treatment options, along with links to sites that can assist you in locating appropriate treatment.

If you’re a clinician, you can submit a question, and one of the site’s experts will provide you a direct response. You will also be referred to some of the posted resources on the site that may be relevant to your inquiry. As questions are answered, they will be added to the database of information so the site will continue to expand in response to user-generated questions.

The SMI Adviser is an innovative site that is chock full of useful information. I will say that some of the material is rather technical in nature and may be difficult for non-professionals to fully appreciate. But don’t let that stop you from exploring the resources to see what’s there that may be helpful to you or to others who are facing personal challenges from SMI.

Here’s a question: What else would you be interested in learning about serious mental illness? Please leave a comment. Also, please subscribe to my blog and feel free to follow me on X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram, “like” my Facebook page, or connect on LinkedIn. Finally, if you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend.