New Network Aims to Transform Care of First-Episode Psychosis

The National Institute of Mental Health ’s Early Psychosis Intervention Network (EPINET) aims to be a “learning health care network” continuously improving the care of patients with first episode psychosis (FEP).EPINET consists of 101 community-based early psychosis programs and eight regional hubs that coordinate the programs across 17 states. The participating clinics use the EPINET Core Assessment Battery at baseline and follow-up for gathering a wide range of clinically relevant data on FEP. Those data are collected by the National Data Coordinating Center, operated by Westat.EPINET is still young —the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) began funding the network in fall 2019—and its goal is to continuously generate new knowledge about FEP, the effectiveness of current interventions, and ways to improve care.“Learning in real time is the goal,” said Robert Heinssen, Ph.D., director of the Division of Services and Intervention Research at NIMH, in an interview. “COVID slowed things down, but we now have the Core Assessment Battery that is used by all participating clinics. Now, the data coming in c an be harmonized across settings and fed back to participating programs so that a program is able to see how its performance stacks up against national metrics in close to real time.”The Core Assessment Battery collects information on symptoms, medication use, functioning, school participation, crisis service use, hospitalization, and other factors impor...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Early Psychosis Intervention Network EPINET FEP first-episode psychosis NIMH Robert Heinssen Source Type: research