The PEGASUS Project

Reducing risk of cardiovascular disease in people with severe mental illness: co-production, feasibility testing and trial of a peer supported group clinic intervention (PEGASUS)

About PEGASUS

Where we are now

Everyone deserves the chance at a long, healthy life. But we know it’s not the same for everyone. People with a severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, can die 15-20 years younger than the general population.

One of the reasons for this is because people with a severe mental illness are more likely to live with other physical health conditions. Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease, is the biggest cause of early death in people with severe mental illness. People with severe mental illness can experience weight gain from anti-psychotic medication, social isolation, and worse, less joined-up care. People from Black and minority ethnic communities can be affected by increased rates of diagnosis of severe mental illness and cardiovascular disease.

What we will do

We aim to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with severe mental illness. Not all the risks are things people can change, but there are some things people can do. Healthy lifestyle programmes can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease for many people, but research suggests that these approaches have very little success with people with severe mental illness. We want to change that.

We are working with people with lived experience of severe mental illness to develop an approach to reducing cardiovascular risk, specially tailored for people with severe mental illness. We’ll be trialling a peer-support group, led by a person who uses their lived experience of mental illness to support others and a health care professional. This group will offer personalised, goal-oriented exercise and diet advice, and medication reviews from physical healthcare professionals.

Peer workers will also offer individual peer support to help people feel more empowered and less socially isolated. There will also be health awareness workshops to make sure people from marginalised communities are at the heart of what we do.

Read the full project plan  

About us

Five team members have extensive experience of supporting patient and public involvement in research and helped shape the proposal. The research team are Service User/Survivor Researchers, and will bring their own lived experience of mental ill health to making sure people involved in research are treated with respect, priority, and fairness.

In addition, a lived experience advisory group of people with severe mental illness and physical health issues will help co-produce the peer-supported groups, develop interview questions and make sense of the information we collect. We’re working together to develop something that has potential to make a real difference.

Get involved

We will post details of how to get involved in the PEGASUS project as soon as we are able to work with participants. In the meantime, please get in touch with any questions at: pegasus@city.ac.uk