EPPIC-Intensive: A Preliminary Review of a New Model of Care for At-Risk Clients
Poster C42, Saturday, October 22, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Le Baron
Dayna Minovski1; 1Orygen Youth Health
The Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre (EPPIC) provides early intervention services to young people aged 15 to 25 years. Previous evaluations of EPPIC have highlighted gaps in service provision to poorly engaged and high-risk clients, often experiencing persistent psychotic symptoms, poor compliance, high comorbidity, and/or frequent relapses. These factors have long been associated with increased service need, poorer functional recovery and further risk of deterioration. As a public health organisation experiencing high ongoing service demand, the EPPIC model was adapted to incorporate a specialised intensive (EPPIC-I) role with a reduced caseload to increase assertive, outreach based early intervention to individuals identified as falling within this 'at-risk' group. A preliminary review of EPPIC-I was conducted over a nine-month period to (a) identify if outreach based interventions were meeting the needs of the target group and (b) to assess the viability of resourcing this role. A file audit was conducted, indicating increased service provision to the target group in comparison to previous service models, with the majority of EPPIC-I clients meeting criteria for Schizophrenia. Care predominantly focused on the provision of essential early psychosis interventions (increased mental state monitoring, medication management and relapse prevention). The use of a systematic approach to improve the provision of supplementary and complex interventions to support functional recovery and enhance psychosocial supports is needed. This presentation will describe the model, target group, indicators for intensive outreach service provision and limitations of increased service provision to this difficult to engage and ‘at-risk’ client group.
Topic Area: Service System Development and Reform