NAMI Ask the Expert: Achieving Ideal Heart Health in People With Mental Illness OD022

An on-demand video and transcript of the presentation are available here [opens in new tab].

About The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. They are an alliance of more than 650 local Affiliates and 49 State organizations who work in your community to raise awareness and provide support and education to people with mental illness and their loved ones. Through awareness, advocacy and education, NAMI is committed to building stronger communities and a better future for everyone affected by mental illness.

Course Summary

Practice Level: Beginner

This course, based on the Ask the Expert webinar series by NAMI, reviews the cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden among people living with mental illness and highlights practical, evidence-based strategies to reduce risk. Topics include epidemiology of premature mortality, modifiable risks (tobacco use, diet, physical inactivity, obesity), and integrated interventions that have demonstrated clinically meaningful risk reduction in community mental health settings.

The course, with an intended audience of social workers, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, and counselors, presents actionable counseling points and team-based care coordination approaches that translate research into routine practice to improve heart health outcomes for clients with serious mental illness.

Course Format

This course contains a participant guide, practice test, and on-demand video (with a transcript and slide deck of the presentation).

Learning Objectives

1. Identify major cardiovascular risk factors disproportionately affecting people with serious mental illness and how these contribute to premature mortality.
2. Describe evidence-based interventions  and their measured outcomes in community mental health settings.
3. Apply the AHA Life’s Essential 8 framework and current diabetes/hypertension standards to practical counseling and care-coordination scenarios in behavioral health practice.

Course Syllabus

• Epidemiology of Early Mortality and CVD in Serious Mental Illness
• Modifiable Risks: Tobacco, Diet, Physical Inactivity, Obesity
• Evidence-Based Interventions: Behavioral Weight Loss, Integrated CVD Risk-Reduction, and Smoking-Cessation Strategies
• Using Life’s Essential 8 and Risk Calculators to Guide Care
• Team-Based Care and Implementation in Community Mental Health Settings

Current References

Battaglia, S., Nazzi, C., & Thayer, J. F. (2023). Fear-induced bradycardia in mental disorders: Foundations, current advances, future perspectives. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 149, 105163.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105163[opens in new tab]

Contrada, R. J. (2025). Stress and cardiovascular disease: The role of affective traits and mental disorders. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 21(1), 139–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081423-023833[opens in new tab]

Lee, H., Lee, J. H., Lee, S., Lim, J. S., Kim, H. J., Park, J., Lee, H., Fond, G., Boyer, L., Smith, L., Rahmati, M., Tully, M. A., Pizzol, D., Oh, H., Kang, J., & Yon, D. K. (2025). Comorbid health outcomes in patients with schizophrenia: An umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Molecular Psychiatry, 30(3), 1127–1137. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02792-2[opens in new tab]

Nielsen, R. E., Banner, J., & Jensen, S. E. (2021). Cardiovascular disease in patients with severe mental illness. Nature Reviews Cardiology, 18(2), 136–145. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-020-00463-7[opens in new tab]

Pu, B., Wang, W., Lei, L., Li, J., Peng, Y., Yu, Y., Zhang, L., & Yuan, X. (2025). Association of depressive symptoms and cardiovascular health with mortality among U.S. adults. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 189, 112032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2024.112032[opens in new tab]

Sanchis-Gomar, F., & Lippi, G. (2025). The forgotten connection: Mental health and cardiovascular disease. Heart and Mind, 9(1), 3–4. https://doi.org/10.4103/hm.hm-d-24-00096[opens in new tab]

Wang, Z., Zou, Y., Liu, J., Peng, W., Li, M., & Zou, Z. (2025). Heart rate variability in mental disorders: An umbrella review of meta-analyses. Translational Psychiatry, 15(1), 104. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-025-03339-x[opens in new tab]

Instructors

Gail L. Daumit, MD, MHS

Dr. Gail Daumit is the Samsung Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Vice Chair for Clinical and Translational Research in the Department of Medicine. She is director of Johns Hopkins NIMH ALACRITY Center for Health and Longevity in Mental Illness.

Dr. Daumit is a practicing general internist, epidemiologist and mental health services researcher whose work is devoted to improving physical health and decreasing premature mortality for persons living with serious mental illnesses. Her current projects — the ALACRITY Center and a newly funded NIH project named DECIPHeR — focus on testing implementation strategies to scale up evidence-based interventions to decrease cardiovascular risk for persons with serious mental illness in community mental health settings. For this work she partners with community mental health organizations and a broad range of stakeholders. Dr. Daumit also served on the World Health Organization Guideline Development Group for Identification and Management of Physical Health Conditions in People with Severe Mental Disorders.

Nicole Errickson, LCSW

Nicole is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in the state of Georgia. She brings over 19 years experience in the social work field, primarily working in school systems as a school social worker and with the McKinney-Vento grant. Over her career, Nicole has had several opportunities to help develop and execute professional development events. Nicole has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of South Alabama and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Alabama.

Accreditation Approval Statements

CE4Less.com is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CE4Less.com maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

CE4Less.com, provider #1115, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 8/8/24-8/8/27.

Social workers completing this course receive 1 clinical continuing education credits.

This course has been approved by CE4Less.com, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #91345, CE4Less.com is responsible for all aspects of the programing.

We are committed to providing our learners with unbiased information. CE4Less never accepts commercial support and our authors have no significant financial or other conflicts of interest pertaining to the material.