Notes from SPM Fundraising Quickteam Meeting 06/14/11
–taken by Maria Mangicaro

• Salon proposal
  • Discussed San Francisco and East Coast Salon events, and decided to aim for September in San Francisco (near Health 2.0 conference Sep 25-27) and near the Connected Health conference in Boston on October 20-21.
  • Goal is to learn from Sept event; incorporate ideas into October event.  Ian Morrison? Paul Tang? Behav Economics person?  Nick Kristakos?
  • Steps discussed – – such as ‘save the date’ communication, attracting keynote speakers [Pro Bono? honorarium? Free membership? Booth at symposium? Link to author’s book? Book signing? Etc]
  • Learning Objective of the Salon event was discussed – several ideas floated….. “Show the value of SPM”; Educate stakeholders; Get donations; Learn what interests potential corporate members, etc.

• Value proposition
  • Communication challenge – ‘what’s in it for them?’ Get feedback from Corp members?  ‘What’s the pitch?’
  • Targets for SPM membership dollars have not been set (and no good mxnm in place for this)
  • SPM offers “no discrimination” in who can be a member… this is a core value.  It applies in mental health, and in MANY areas of health care. “We are all collaborators” (doctors, patients, everyone)…
• Membership
  • Rolling expirations for memberships
  • Some encouragement for corporate members to renew
  • Bronze (PatientsLikeMe) is not renewing;
  • Two of the 4 “spenders” on Corp Membership are not renewing; perhaps goal is to grow from 48 Corp members, above “innovator”
  • Most of membership is individuals (200 or so); fairly static (many non-renewals); Should membership be growing – – YES!  Individual membership group = Cheryl Greene & Deb Linton; Maria offered to volunteer
  • We have money in the bank right now to spend
  • Maria suggested ways to increase membership:
    • “welcome package” for new members – – window stickers? Author book promotions?
    • Need to survey current membership re: value proposition
    • Approaching existing organizations – for example, mental health organizations with overlapping interests (which could spur membership)
• Survey discussion
  • Target – – web-based questions put out to everyone – – “how would you define a compelling medical society”?   This might help to clarify our problem; “health care society of the future” ?
  • Do we have a dearth of info? Or a diversity of info? Would a survey help? Would interviews or a focus group help?
  • Let’s use some kind of a tool; something that can circulate broadly; leverage other societies?  Amer Assoc Advancement of Science?
  • Target a “core” group for this…. Several were interested: Maria, Ann, Mike, invite Deb and Cheryl…..  Liaison from Social Media Quickteam… Emily Hackel (Edelman)?

Consideration:  How do we get closer to a value statement with a broad appeal?

Maria finds it difficult to put together a universal Value Proposition until more tangible aspects are developed (eg. certification) and current members are solicited for input.

Maria is interested in volunteering her time to increasing membership among mental health care advocates.

This seems like a strong sector to cultivate membership because there is conflict between advocacy groups and the participatory movement offers a “conflict resolution”.  All sides seem to agree with evolving concepts that give a voice to the consumer.

The JoPM currently has 7 published articles that are a strong indication SPM can have a substantial impact on an already developing Participatory Model of Mental Health Care.

This can be defined in a statement that has value to not only the deeply entrenched advocates but also to providers, patients, philanthropists and institutes providing education or care.

Maria has recently been in contact with the founder of the nonprofit organization the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care.

This organization was established earlier this year and has already received over $2 million dollars in donations.

Founding members from this organization will be presenting at the 14th Annual Conference of the International Society for Ethical Psychology and Psychiatry, Oct 28-29, 2011 in LA.

Maria would like to suggest SPM has a presence at the ISEPP conference along with promotional material.

Mike immediately suggested that SPM should not focus on a target group.

To support Maria’s passion, she would like the team to consider the citations below.  This target group is not limited as this group is also dealing with a higher incident of chronic disease than the general population, as well the lifespan of people with severe mental illness is shorter compared to the general population, indicating the need of empowerment concepts. We should also consider this target group that is at a disadvantage in becoming empowered patients.  The effect of participatory medicine on mental heatlh care will have a joint influence on overall health care.

World Psychiatry. 2011 Jun;10(2):138-51.
Physical illness in patients with severe mental disorders. II. Barriers to care, monitoring and treatment guidelines, plus recommendations at the system and individual level.
DE Hert M, Cohen D, Bobes J, Cetkovich-Bakmas M, Leucht S, M Ndetei D, W Newcomer J, Uwakwe R, Asai I, Möller HJ, Gautam S, Detraux J, U Correll C.
Abstract
Physical disorders are, compared to the general population, more prevalent in people with severe mental illness (SMI). Although this excess morbidity and mortality is largely due to modifiable lifestyle risk factors, the screening and assessment of physical health aspects remains poor, even in developed countries. Moreover, specific patient, provider, treatment and system factors act as barriers to the recognition and to the management of physical diseases in people with SMI. Psychiatrists can play a pivotal role in the improvement of the physical health of these patients by expanding their task from clinical psychiatric care to the monitoring and treatment of crucial physical parameters. At a system level, actions are not easy to realize, especially for developing countries. However, at an individual level, even simple and very basic monitoring and treatment actions, undertaken by the treating clinician, can already improve the problem of suboptimal medical care in this population. Adhering to monitoring and treatment guidelines will result in a substantial enhancement of physical health outcomes. Furthermore, psychiatrists can help educate and motivate people with SMI to address their suboptimal lifestyle, including smoking, unhealthy diet and lack of exercise. The adoption of the recommendations presented in this paper across health care systems throughout the world will contribute to a significant improvement in the medical and related psychiatric health outcomes of patients with SMI.
World Psychiatry. 2011 Feb;10(1):52-77.
Physical illness in patients with severe mental disorders. I. Prevalence, impact of medications and disparities in health care.
DE Hert M, Correll CU, Bobes J, Cetkovich-Bakmas M, Cohen D, Asai I, Detraux J, Gautam S, Möller HJ, Ndetei DM, Newcomer JW, Uwakwe R, Leucht S.
Abstract
The lifespan of people with severe mental illness (SMI) is shorter compared to the general population. This excess mortality is mainly due to physical illness. We report prevalence rates of different physical illnesses as well as important individual lifestyle choices, side effects of psychotropic treatment and disparities in health care access, utilization and provision that contribute to these poor physical health outcomes. We searched MEDLINE (1966 – August 2010) combining the MeSH terms of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder with the different MeSH terms of general physical disease categories to select pertinent reviews and additional relevant studies through cross-referencing to identify prevalence figures and factors contributing to the excess morbidity and mortality rates. Nutritional and metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, viral diseases, respiratory tract diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, sexual dysfunction, pregnancy complications, stomatognathic diseases, and possibly obesity-related cancers are, compared to the general population, more prevalent among people with SMI. It seems that lifestyle as well as treatment specific factors account for much of the increased risk for most of these physical diseases. Moreover, there is sufficient evidence that people with SMI are less likely to receive standard levels of care for most of these diseases. Lifestyle factors, relatively easy to measure, are barely considered for screening; baseline testing of numerous important physical parameters is insufficiently performed. Besides modifiable lifestyle factors and side effects of psychotropic medications, access to and quality of health care remains to be improved for individuals with SMI.

Psychiatr Serv. 2010 Jan;61(1):45-9.
General medical problems of incarcerated persons with severe and persistent mental illness: a population-based study.
Cuddeback GS, Scheyett A, Pettus-Davis C, Morrissey JP.
Source
Cecil G. Sheps Center for HealthServices Research, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. cuddeback@mail.schsr.unc.edu
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
Persons with severe mental illness have higher rates of chronic general medical illness compared with the general population. Similarly, compared with the general population, incarcerated persons have higher rates of chronic medical illness; however, there is little information about the synergy between severe mental illness and incarceration and the general medical problems of consumers. To address this gap in the literature this study addressed the following question: are consumers with a history of incarceration at greater risk of general medical problems compared with consumers without such a history?
METHODS:
Administrative data were used to compare the medical problems of 3,690 persons with severe mental illness with a history of incarceration and 2,042 persons with severe mental illness with no such history.
RESULTS:
Consumers with a history of incarceration were more likely than those with no such history to have infectious, blood, and skin diseases and a history of injury. Furthermore, when analyses controlled for gender, race, age, and substance use disorders, consumers with an incarceration history were 40% more likely to have any general medical problem and 30% more likely to have multiple medical problems.
CONCLUSIONS:
The findings presented here call for better communication among local public health and mental health providers and jails and better integration of primary care and behavioral health care among community mental health providers. Also, research should be accelerated on evidence-based interventions designed to divert persons with severe mental illness from the criminal justice system and facilitate community reentry for persons with severe mental illness who are released from jails and prisons.