Better futures: A whole-system, life course approach to promoting healthy life and preventing premature deaths

Date: Monday 15 June
Time: 2pm - 3.15pm

Overview

This session highlights RCPsych's work to improve the physical health of people with mental illness. This session is centred around the highlights of the RCPsych's position statement on physical health.

The session is divided into three segments of physical healthcare, including the work done by the Presidential Scholars for Physical Health. It will involve people from specialties outside of psychiatry, and people with lived experience.

  • Smoking cessation: A showcase of the QUITT Collaborative, a quality improvement project hosted by RCPsych, which led to national improvements in tobacco dependence services across England.
  • Wim’s protocol: An update to the clozapine monitoring protocol to reflect the latest evidence base, with input from people with lived experience
  • Weight management: An overview of how current approaches fall short in addressing antipsychotic-related weight gain. Highlights opportunities across the life course to strengthen prevention, improve support, and reshape the narrative around weight in mental health care.

In this session you will learn about:

  • the new RCPsych position statement on improving physical health, emphasising the importance of prevention, action through the life course and working across the whole system to prevent premature death and promote healthier lives
  • the latest developments in pharmacology and policy in managing tobacco dependence in our population as a key measure in preventing illness and premature death
  • how to prevent and manage weight gain in people with mental illness, where psychotropic medication is a factor
  • the new RCPsych Wim's protocol for safe monitoring of clozapine, as a new resource to ensure that everyone who needs clozapine can receive it safely and patients, carers and staff can feel more confident about prescribing and taking it.

Speakers

  • Chair: Dr Lade Smith, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London
  • What every psychiatrist needs to know about smoking cessation
    • Professor Sanjay Agrawal, NHS England, London
  • Wim’s protocol for safe monitoring of clozapine: why do we need it?
    • Dr Ed Beveridge, Presidential Lead for Physical Health, Royal College of Psychiatrists, London
    • Ms Nichola Crawford, Expert by Experience
  • Changing the narrative: life course approaches to weight management in severe mental illness
    • Dr Jo Howe, Aston University, Coventry
Register for Congress 2026

Please email congress@rcpsych.ac.uk or call 020 8618 4120 with any enquiries.