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Increasing US health plan coverage for exercise programming in community mental health settings for people with serious mental illness: a position statement from the Society of Behavior Medicine and the American College of Sports Medicine

  • Practice and Public Health Policies
  • Published:
Translational Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Adults with serious mental illness die more than 10 years earlier than the average American. Premature mortality is due to the high prevalence of preventable diseases including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Poor lifestyle behaviors including lack of exercise and physical inactivity contribute to the epidemic levels of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease observed among adults with serious mental illness. Not surprisingly, people with serious mental illness are among the most costly consumers of health services due to increased visits for poorly managed mental and physical health. Recent studies have demonstrated that exercise interventions based on community mental health settings can significantly improve physical and mental health in people with serious mental illness. However, current funding regulations limit the ability of community mental health settings to offer exercise programming services to people with serious mental illness. Policy efforts are needed to improve the dissemination and sustainability of exercise programs for people with serious mental illness.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the expert review provided by the Society of Behavioral Medicine’s (SBM) Integrated Primary Care and Physical Activity Special Interest Groups, the SBM Scientific and Professional Liaison Council, and the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health and Science Policy Committee. This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health grant R34MH086678-01 (KS) and is a product of the Yale Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research Center supported by Cooperative Agreement Number U48DP005018 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (SB, SP). The findings and conclusions in this statement are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Veterans Health Administration, or the In-SHAPE Implementation study (R01MH102325, Bartels, PI).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, 105 Pleasant Street, Main Building, Dartmouth College, Concord, NH, 03301, USA

    Sarah I. Pratt PhD & Stephen J. Bartels MD, MS

  2. Department of Kinesiology, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA

    Gerald J. Jerome PhD

  3. Division of General Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Gerald J. Jerome PhD & Gail L. Daumit MD, MHS

  4. Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science, Chicago, IL, USA

    Kristin L. Schneider PhD

  5. American College of Sports Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Lynette L. Craft PhD & Mark Stoutenberg PhD, MSPH

  6. School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    Matthew P. Buman PhD

  7. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Mark Stoutenberg PhD, MSPH

  8. VA Center for Clinical Management Research, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105, USA

    David E. Goodrich EdD

Authors
  1. Sarah I. Pratt PhD
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  2. Gerald J. Jerome PhD
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  3. Kristin L. Schneider PhD
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  4. Lynette L. Craft PhD
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  5. Matthew P. Buman PhD
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  6. Mark Stoutenberg PhD, MSPH
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  7. Gail L. Daumit MD, MHS
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  8. Stephen J. Bartels MD, MS
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  9. David E. Goodrich EdD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah I. Pratt PhD.

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Conflict of interest

Mark Stoutenberg is a consultant to Exercise is Medicine®, a program of the American College of Sports Medicine, which receives funding from The Coca-Cola Company and Technogym. The remaining authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Implications

Practice: Exercise is a first-line treatment to prevent and manage many chronic physical and mental health conditions and yet this treatment option is largely inaccessible to people with serious mental illness receiving services in community mental health settings due to current funding and policy limitations.

Policy: New legislation is needed to enable Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers to reimburse evidence-based exercise programs for people with serious mental illness treated in community mental health settings in order to foster improved mental and physical health outcomes and to reduce healthcare costs for this vulnerable population.

Research: Further research is needed to identify and evaluate the most cost-effective treatment models to engage and sustain exercise in people seeking recovery-oriented psychiatric rehabilitation in community mental health settings.

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Pratt, S.I., Jerome, G.J., Schneider, K.L. et al. Increasing US health plan coverage for exercise programming in community mental health settings for people with serious mental illness: a position statement from the Society of Behavior Medicine and the American College of Sports Medicine. Behav. Med. Pract. Policy Res. 6, 478–481 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-016-0407-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13142-016-0407-7

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