ALACRITY Center for Health & Longevity in Mental Illness

Improving Health and Longevity Among People With Serious Mental Illness

The ALACRITY Center for Health and Longevity in Mental Illness at Johns Hopkins is funded as part of the National Institute of Mental Health Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) P50 Centers Program. Our Center uses cutting-edge transdisciplinary methods to advance short- and long-term strategies to reduce premature mortality in the population with serious mental illness.

People with serious mental illness currently die 10-20 years earlier than the overall population.  Early death in people with serious mental illness is driven by high rates of cardiovascular disease and other physical health conditions. Interventions shown to improve physical health among people with serious mental illness in clinical trials have not been widely adopted in community mental health programs. Through research, training, and community partnerships, the Johns Hopkins ALACRITY Center seeks to speed translation of effective interventions to improve physical health and reduce premature mortality among people with serious mental illness into everyday practice.