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  4. Flu vaccination and severe mental illness
  1. Advice and information
  2. Living with mental illness
  3. Information on wellbeing, physical health, BAME & LGBT+ and studying and mental health
  4. Flu vaccination and severe mental illness

Flu vaccination and severe mental illness

You might be living with a severe mental illness or caring for someone who does. You may be able to get a free flu vaccination on the NHS.

The flu vaccine is safe and effective. It’s offered every year on the NHS to help protect people at risk of flu. 

Rethink Mental Illness and the Centre for Mental Health co-run Equally Well. They aim to improve the physical health of people who live with Mental illness.  Equally Well has produced resources about flu vaccinations and people who live with severe mental illness and their carers. 3 resources have been produced for:

The resources tell you:

  • who can get a flu vaccination for free,
  • flu vaccination tips for people living with severe mental illness and their carers, and
  • answers to frequently asked questions about flu vaccinations.

If you can’t get a flu vaccine for free you can pay to have one at most pharmacies, including pharmacies at supermarkets. You can find out where to get a flu jab by putting ‘Where can I get a flu jab?’ into an internet search engine.

You can access the NHS’s information on the flu vaccine by visiting the NHS website.

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© Rethink Mental Illness 2023

Last updated October 2022
Next update October 2025

Version number 2

 

 

 

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