Prescribing physical activity in mental healthcare settings

Physiotherapists are ideally placed to promote the health and well-being of people with severe mental illnesses through physical activity prescription. In this chapter we describe how physiotherapists can motivate people with severe mental illness, starting from the 5A model (assess, advise, agree, assist, arrange). The 5A model of behaviour change and counselling has been shown to increase healthy behaviours, positive influence mediators of behavioural change, increase communications skills about health behaviour change and improve patient outcomes.