Making the implicit explicit: A visual model for lowering the risk of implicit bias of mental/behavioural disorders on safety and quality of care

Persons with mental illness and/or addictions have poorer health outcomes than the general population. Lower quality of healthcare has been identified as an important factor. A main contributor to lower quality of care for people with mental illnesses and/or addictions may be the cognitive implicit bias of mental versus physical care when assessing and categorizing a patient’s clinical presentation. The objective of this article is to highlight how this implicit cognitive bias of mental versus physical care can result in human factor risks to quality of care. We provide three specific case examples of where these quality concerns arise. We also propose the use of a new visual tool to help educate and create awareness of this implicit-bias-based risk and quality care problem.