Early Intervention Across Mental Health Services

This chapter offers an overview of early intervention services addressing mental health conditions as they present in adolescence and early adulthood. Early intervention (EI) is an approach that is now standard practice across many areas of medicine. The previous three decades have seen psychiatry begin to follow, particularly for treating early psychosis. This chapter begins by giving an overview of the EI approach within early psychosis, followed by how this model of care has been adapted across other diagnoses, specifically mood disorders, personality disorders, and substance use. To explain why early intervention is a crucial approach in mental health and psychiatry, the next section of the chapter provides an overview of the clinical staging model proposed by McGorry, Hickie, and colleagues. The chapter concludes with a discussion on how early intervention services can be adapted for delivery within low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).