Failure to receive health care among people with mental illness: theory and implications

Often individuals with serious mental illness suffer from comorbid physical health problems but fail to receive necessary health care services. This article explores the major factors associated with the failure to receive adequate medical care using 3 theories of health care utilization: Andersen's behavioral model of health services use, the health belief model, and the avoidance and approach framework. Finding these theories inadequate to fully explain the failure to receive adequate care on their own, a new intervention model incorporating an individual and context-specific dimension is proposed as a comprehensive way of conceptualizing how people with mental illness may be effectively engaged with the health care system.