The Scope for Psychosocial Treatments for Psychosis

The recent Australian Study on Low Prevalence Disorders (Jablensky et al., 2000) found that, whilst most Australians with a psychotic illness (91%) were taking medication, few were receiving adequate psychosocial support from mental health services; fully 47% of the sample perceived the need for a particular type of service which was not able to be accessed by them, either because of it simply not being available or not being affordable (65% and 49%, respectively, of respondents identified these as barriers). This article outlines a proposed framework that will help meet some of this deficit. The program will develop, evaluate and disseminate comprehensive modular treatment packages addressing the psychosocial needs of people with psychotic disorders. It is novel in terms of the comprehensiveness of the approach, the rigour of the evaluation (using controlled experimental design), and the extent of inter-sectoral and multidisciplinary involvement in mapping needs, developing the interventions, and dissemination.