“…Schizophrenia is the 15th leading cause of disability throughout the world (GDB 2016 Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators, 2017; National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2018); it is a mental disorder that affects cognition, perception, language, behavior, and speech in more than 21 million individuals (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013; Colijn, Nitta, & Grossberg, 2015; Untu et al, 2015; World Health Organization, 2018). Until recently, a diagnosis of schizophrenia usually meant a lowered life expectancy (Al Jurdi, Rej, & Sajatovic, 2014; Almeida et al, 2014; Laursen, Nordentoft, & Mortensen, 2014; Mausbach & Ho, 2015; NIMH, 2018), with the hypothesis that older adults diagnosed with schizophrenia (OADWS) would die earlier than their peers who are not mentally ill, as a result of poor lifestyle choices, less access to health care, or poor compliance with treatments (Almeida et al, 2014; Cohen, Meesters, & Zhao, 2015).…”