Abstract Background Clients with severe mental illness (SMI) have overall poor physical health. SMI reduces life expectancy by 5–17 years, primarily due to physical comorbidity linked to cardiometabolic risks that are mainly driven by unhealthy lifestyle behaviours. To improve physical health in clients with SMI, key elements are systematic somatic screening and lifestyle promotion. The nurse-led GILL eHealth was developed for somatic screening and the imple‑ mentation of lifestyle activities in clients with SMI. Aims of this study are to evaluate the efectiveness of the GILL eHealth intervention in clients with SMI compared to usual care, and to evaluate the implementation process, and the experiences of clients and healthcare providers with GILL eHealth. Methods The GILL study encompasses a cluster-randomised controlled trial in approximately 20 mental health care facilities in the Netherlands. The randomisation takes place at the team level, assigning clients to the eHealth inter‑ vention or the usual care group. The GILL eHealth intervention consists of two complementary modules for somatic screening and lifestyle promotion, resulting in personalised somatic treatment and lifestyle plans. Trained mental health nurses and nurse practitioners will implement the intervention within the multidisciplinary treatment context, and will guide and support the participants in promoting their physical health, including cardiometabolic risk management. Usual care includes treatment as currently delivered, with national guidelines as frame of reference. We aim to include 258 clients with SMI and a BMI of 27 or higher. Primary outcome is the metabolic syndrome severity score. Secondary outcomes are physical health measurements and participants’ reports on physical activity, perceived lifestyle behaviours, quality of life, recovery, psychosocial functioning, and health-related self-efcacy. Measurements will be completed at baseline and at 6 and 12 months. A qualitative process evaluation will be conducted alongside, to evaluate the process of implementation and the experiences of clients and healthcare professionals with GILL eHealth. Discussion The GILL eHealth intervention is expected to be more efective than usual care in improving physical health and lifestyle behaviours among clients with SMI. It will also provide important information on implementation of GILL eHealth in mental health care. If proven efective, GILL eHealth ofers a clinically useful tool to improve physical health and lifestyle behaviours.
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SAMENVATTING Mensen met een ernstige psychiatrische aandoening (EPA) hebben een sterk verminderde levensverwachting in vergelijking met de algemene populatie, vooral veroorzaakt door fysieke aandoeningen. Een ongezonde leefstijl speelt een belangrijke rol in de verminderde levensverwachting bij mensen met EPA. Ter bevordering van de fysieke gezondheid van deze doelgroep is de nurse-led e-health-interventie GILL (Gezondheid in Lichaam en Leefstijl) ontwikkeld voor somatische screening en het stimuleren van een gezonde(re) leefstijl. Door het uitvoeren van een cluster-gerandomiseerde studie (RCT) wordt onderzocht of de GILL e-health-interventie effectiever is dan de standaardzorg in het verbeteren van de fysieke gezondheid en leefstijl van mensen met EPA. De primaire uitkomstmaat van deze studie is de score voor de ernst van het metabool syndroom. Naast de RCT wordt een procesevaluatie uitgevoerd om de implementatie en de ervaringen van zowel de deelnemende cliënten als de hulpverleners met de GILLinterventie systematisch te evalueren.
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The aim of the present thesis was to contribute to the improvement of patient care communication across the integrated care setting of children with cerebral palsy. Hereto, we followed two subsequent phases: 1) obtaining a better understanding of the experienced quality of patient care communication across the integrated care setting of cerebral palsy in three Dutch care regions; and 2) investigating the feasibility and usability of an eHealth application to improve patient care communication in these care regions.
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