Authors: Jo Gorrell, Alan Rosen, Chris Tennant, Bev Moss, Alison Cornish, Viv Miller, Louise Nash, Nick Kowalenko
Year: 2001
Event: 2001 TheMHS Conference
Subject: book of proceedings, Youth, adolescent, The Early Psychosis Prevention & Intervention Network for Young People (EPPINY)
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
ISBN: 1876939079
Abstract: The Early Psychosis Prevention & Intervention Network for Young People (EPPINY) was established in 1996 by clinicians in Northern Sydney Health Area Mental Health Services.
The aim is to provide earlier and better intervention to young people presenting with early psychosis. The expected outcomes are improved recovery and prevention of secondary problems for these young people. The main strategies have been to facilitate service development through staff training, service restructure and the development of local clinical guidelines.
Northern Sydney Health Area Mental Health Services comprise four Sector Area Health Services. Each sector includes an adult and an adolescent service, an acute in-patient unit and integrated, assertive community mental health teams. As a result of service restructuring three sectors now have a specialised community early psychosis team. Together the four sectors service a population of approximately 750 000. The EPPINY project, in striving for better services for young people, has included all teams that may be involved in their care.
The EPPINY project includes two streams: (a) Service Development and (b) Evaluation.
Service Development activities began in 1997 with introductory training for staff regarding the principles of early psychosis intervention. Staffs training workshops have continued throughout 1998-2001. The content has become gradually more specialised with recent workshops addressing clinical skills in, for example, working with families and treating substance use.
Evaluation of the impact and outcome of these service developments has progressed throughout the past four years with a focus on staff attitudes, changes in service provision and client outcomes.
This paper will discuss our approach to examining changes in service provision and report on preliminary findings.
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