The King’s Fund’s report published in 2016 looks at how physical and mental health are closely interconnected and affect each other through a number of pathways. It gives service users’ perspectives on what integrated care would look like and highlights 10 areas that offer some of the biggest opportunities for improving quality and controlling costs. 

A number of factors have made it difficult to respond to physical and mental health needs in an integrated way, including institutional and cultural barriers, separate payment systems for physical and mental health care, and the trend for increasing sub-specialisation in professional education. As a result, people using services commonly find that their physical and mental health needs are addressed in a disconnected way.

To find out more about the report and the King’s Fund please visit their website