General Discussion

The health authority I worked for in BC had a program called Early Psychosis Intervention (EPI). It was fairly new when I started working for Fraser Health in 2012, and definitely wasn’t around 30 years ago.

The EPI program provided resources for education, screening and treatment. The goal was to provide treatment and support ASAP following a young person’s first psychotic episode. Education was provided to teach parents, teachers and other people how to recognize the early signs of psychosis, so EPI could get involved and start treatment.

The number of young people diagnosed and treated for psychosis therefore skyrocketed because awareness was increased and the resources were available. 30-60 years ago people with psychosis fell through the cracks, became homeless, got locked up or died young.