RECENT ASSIGNMENT

Assessment 1
People with a lived experience of mental illness have a reduced life expectancy up to 20-years when compared to the general population. There are several reasons for this including (but not limited to) iatrogenic illness from medication, diagnostic overshadowing and adversity.
Using evidence-based research, critically analyse two causes of premature death in people with mental illness that are related to the social determinants of health. You must also critically discuss one evidence-based intervention that has efficacy in reducing premature deaths in this population.
The following steps are provided as a guide to developing your assessment:
Step 1: Choose two causes of premature death in people with mental illness. These must be related to the social determinants of health.
Example
Poor health behaviours increasing death (e.g. smoking rates) may be associated with a lack of health literacy and education in people with mental illness.
You might like to begin by brainstorming areas of interest or by searching the causes of premature death in people with mental illness as a starting point before you make your choice.
Step 2: Explore contemporary peer-reviewed literature on these causes of premature death. Some prompts to consider as you search:
• What are the links between the cause of premature death and the social determinants of health?
• How does this research relate to people with mental illness?
• What makes these factors specific to people with mental illness?
Step 3: Analyse the literature and the information you have collected about the causes of premature death.
Step 4: Explore an evidence-based intervention that has proven to reduce premature deaths within this population. You might like to consider:
• harm minimisation strategies
• behavioural changes or modification programs
• metabolic monitoring.
Step 5: Apply a critical lens to the intervention you have chosen. What does the research show? Is there more work that needs to be done in this field?
General tips
1. Focus on critical language, rather than descriptive language. You need to be comparing and contrasting, evaluating, etc.
2. There should be a connection between the intervention chosen in Step 3 and the causes of premature death you chose to analyse.
3. While this assessment has been stepped out to guide your completion, it should be structured like an academic essay.
Supporting resources
Access these supporting resources through the Reading List, and online readings via links provided.
• Mental healthLinks to an external site. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], 2024a).
• Australian Burden of Disease Study 2023Links to an external site. (AIHW, 2023a).
• Deaths by suicide among First Nations PeopleLinks to an external site. (AIHW, 2023b).
• Chronic condition multimorbidityLinks to an external site. (AIHW, 2021).
• Premature death among people with mental illness (Thornicroft, 2013).
• Reducing excess mortality due to chronic disease in people with severe mental illness: Meta-review of health interventions (Baxter, et al., 2016).