How we can help

The EI Team offer their help over a number of distinct steps, from an initial assessment to post-care support.

Psychosis IS treatable

Interventions

Following initial assessment you will be allocated a care coordinator from the team. This may be one of the people who did your assessment but it may be someone else with particular skills to meet your needs. The EI Team is staffed by a range of professionals including nurses, psychologists, support time and recovery workers, psychiatrists, an occupational therapist and a social worker.

The assessment will identify the sorts of areas you might need help in and together you and your care coordinator will design a plan of care to meet your needs. The plan might include some of the following interventions.

Information and advice

We can offer 1:1 sessions with you and your family to give you information, ideas and advice that others have found helpful in dealing with Psychosis and its effects. We also can provide fact sheets, booklets and self help books on a variety of subjects. Some of this material can be downloaded from this website or there are some useful links to other material on the internet.

Social support

We understand the impact that experiencing a psychotic episode can have but we believe that in the majority of cases recovery is possible and that you can get back on your feet quickly. We know that it is very important to get support in solving difficulties with work, study, housing, finance or your social life. Sometimes, it’s difficult to get started, so we run a number of activities (e.g. art, leisure and social activities), which can be a good starting point. These can be individual or group activities where you can meet others with similar experiences to you.

Support and intervention for family and carers

Sometimes it is helpful to involve your family, partner or friends to support their caring role and your recovery. Our interventions can help them understand what you have been experiencing and what they can to do to help you and themselves.

We have staff trained in Behavioural Family Therapy which is offered to individual families and we also run family and carer support groups. Your key worker and or a family intervention practitioner can meet with you to provide more information.

Psychological support

The experience of Psychosis can be distressing. Psychological support is aimed at helping you make sense of the experience and why it has happened. This support can be in the form of talking therapy offered by one of our psychologists or qualified staff. The therapy can include:

  • CBT for persistent distressing symptoms such as hearing voices and paranoia
  • Support with adapting to the impact of illness and making sense of this. Typically, even when feeling better it is normal for people to have worries around becoming ill again/staying well and the impact of their experiences on their future hopes and goals
  • Vulnerability: low self esteem, past interpersonal difficulties, trauma

Medical support

Medication can be an important part of the treatment of Psychosis. It can relieve symptoms of Psychosis and if taken regularly can prevent them coming back. The different medications available to treat Psychosis are called anti-psychotics (or sometimes neuroleptics). Nowadays, the atypical anti-psychotic medications are the first line of treatment and include Risperidone, Olanzapine, Quetiapine, Aripiprazole and Clozapine.

There are also other medications that are sometimes used along with anti-psychotics, for example, anti-depressants or mood stabilisers may be used for problems with mood. If we think medications might help you, we will discuss with you why and the potential benefits (and side effects) you can expect.

Crisis support

The EI Team is usually able to help with most of the needs that a young person with Psychosis has. Very occasionally people experiencing Psychosis need additional support because of a crisis. At these times we may ask colleagues from the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment (CRHT) Team to offer additional support. This way most people can be supported in the community but if a hospital admission is appropriate the CRHT Team will assess that need. If you do have go into hospital it is likely to be for a brief period of time only, and you and your family will continue to receive support from the EI Team.

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