Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre

The Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre (EPPIC) "aims to facilitate early identification and treatment of psychosis and therefore reduce the disruption to the young person’s functioning and psychosocial development." EPPIC is part of ORYGEN Youth Health."EPPIC was established by the Victorian government Department of Health and Community Services to provide a statewide specialised service in first episode psychosis." (Gosden, p.275)

Personal Assistance and Crisis Evaluation
EPPIC researchers created the Personal Assistance and Crisis Evaluation (PACE) clinic but "decided it should not be located with EPPIC. The reason given was to protect the at-risk group of clients from the stigma that might attach to them if they were known to be visiting a clinic which was clearly dedicated to the treatment of serious mental illness. To further avoid this association the PACE clinic was located at a generalised outpatient service and health promotion centre called the Centre for Adolescent Health."

"This deception was motivated by more than a simple concern for protecting the clients from stigma. The EPPIC researchers did not want anything to impede the flow of clients into their clinic. It was thought that if a frank association with mental illness were declared up front it might “affect referrals, as primary caregivers may be afraid of the perception that they are labelling young people detrimentally. Stigma can also lead to attendance problems”." (Gosden, p.278)

"On top of the deception in the naming and location of PACE it also appears as if the clients themselves were not properly informed about the real purpose of the programme into which they were inducted. Instead of informing the clients that they had been diagnosed for being at-risk of developing psychosis, and were therefore being treated for early psychosis, “the need for intervention was explained in relation to the patient’s presenting problems. For example, the focus might be on helping a young person with social skills and coping at school.”60 In other words, the clients were led to believe that their self-evident symptoms were all that was wrong with them and they were not told that these minor deviations were thought to be early indicators of serious mental disease." (Gosden, p.279)

"PACE, also receives drug company funding from Janssen-Cilag." (Gosden, 2000, p.297)

For a full examination of EPPIC's works see Chapter 10 of Gosdens PhD

"EPPIC researchers have also been active in developing national standards of best practice for early psychosis intervention and treatment in Australia. In early 1996 EPPIC won a tender to undertake the National Early Psychosis Project (NEPP)." (Gosden, p.286)

Staff

 * Patrick McGorry - Director

Contact
Web: http://www.eppic.org.au/