This resource was selected by SMI Adviser content partners and approved by the SMI Adviser clinical expert team for inclusion in the knowledge base.
Adults with serious mental illness (SMI) often experience gaps in access to needed health care compared with other populations. Such disparities may be even more pronounced between certain groups of patients with SMI, differing by race, ethnicity, gender, economic disadvantage (including housing stability) and socioeconomic status, and geographic location (chiefly, rural versus urban residence); disparities arise as well for individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and those who have difficulty communicating in English (because it is a second language). The primary goal of this Technical Brief is to describe and review the effectiveness of interventions that address disparities among adult patients with SMI in these important groups.