Evaluation of the Early Psychological Intervention Clinic within the Mid-Essex Early Intervention in Psychosis Team

Abstract

NICE guidelines state that adults experiencing a first episode of psychosis should access psychological input within two weeks of referral (NICE, 2016). In the Mid-Essex Early Intervention Psychosis Team, clients can book up to four sessions of assessment and brief intervention when first referred and feel ready to access the Early Psychological Intervention Clinic (EPIC). Following this, clients can be referred for further psychological intervention should they want or require this. This service evaluation aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of EPIC sessions by comparing the CORE-OM (Evans et al., 2009) outcome measure pre- and post-EPIC and collecting qualitative feedback using a structured interview with open-ended questions. The results showed clinically significant improvements for 45 per cent of clients. Paired T-Tests revealed statistically significant improvement in the overall clinical score and all subsections of the CORE, suggesting EPIC sessions are effective in improving wellbeing, functioning, symptoms and reducing risk. Furthermore, qualitative feedback showed that clients who completed EPIC tended to have good experiences and be motivated to work psychologically. The results of the service evaluation suggest EPIC sessions are beneficial to clients and help improve overall wellbeing, producing clinically and statistically significant outcomes. Clients also reported them being a helpful experience. Therefore, EPIC provides favourable outcomes to the service which suggests it should continue to be offered to clients. Limitations and ideas for service improvement are discussed.