Early intervention in youth mental health: progress and future directions
Open accessAbstract
Early intervention is a fundamental principle in health care and the past two decades have seen it belatedly introduced into the field of mental health. This began in psychotic disorders, arguably the least promising place to start. The steady accumulation of scientific evidence for early intervention has eventually overwhelmed the sceptics, transformed thinking in psychotic disorders and created an international wave of service reform. This paradigm shift has paved the way to a more substantial one: early intervention across the full diagnostic spectrum. 75% of mental illnesses emerge before the age of 25 years, and young people bear the major burden for those disorders that threaten the many decades of productive adult life. The paradox is that young people aged between 12 and 25 years have had by far the worst levels of access to mental health care across the whole lifespan. Health services are poorly designed, grossly under-resourced and typically unfriendly to, and untrusted by, young people. Furthermore, until recently there has been a quite striking lack of interest in this transitional age group from clinicians and researchers alike, who had unthinkingly accepted the paediatric–adult split of mainstream medicine without questioning its utility and validity for our field and our young patients. Over the past decade, however, a major shift in momentum has occurred to take early intervention in youth mental health more seriously. Here we discuss the recent advances and evidence supporting an innovative integrated model of youth mental health care and look to the future.
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Similar models have been developed or under construction in Denmark, Israel, California, Canada (the ACCESS, Adolescent/young adult Connections to Community-driven Early Strengths-based and Stigma-free services), British Columbia ('The Foundry' model), and the Netherlands (@ease).
“Similar models have been developed or under construction in Denmark, Israel, California, Canada (the ACCESS, Adolescent/young adult Connections to Community-driven Early Strengths-based and Stigma-free services), British Columbia (‘The Foundry’ model), and the Netherlands (@ease) [8].”
From Prevention and early intervention in youth mental health: is it time for a multidisciplinary and trans-diagnostic model for care? (2020) · cites this paper as [8]
In a decade, thanks to the creation of 'communities of youth services' (CYSs), Headspace has seen growing the number of its centers from 10 to more than 110, granting access to services to about 100,000 young people per year, including vulnerable, marginalized, and at-risk groups.
“In a decade, thanks to the creation of ‘communities of youth services’ (CYSs), Headspace has seen growing the number of its centers from 10 to more than 110, granting access to services to about 100,000 young people per year, including vulnerable, marginalized, and at-risk groups [8].”
From Prevention and early intervention in youth mental health: is it time for a multidisciplinary and trans-diagnostic model for care? (2020) · cites this paper as [8]
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“The reconceptualization of this intervention as an open-access intervention for all help-seeking students fits with a broader move toward early interventions and selective or indicated prevention for adolescent mental health problems (35, 36).”
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“Therefore, to prevent the development and persistence of mental disorders and its associated burden later in life, focus in mental health has to be on early stage improvement of wellbeing and resilience, specifically in 12–25 year-olds (McGorry & Mei, 2018; McGorry & Van Os, 2013).”
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“Mental disorders emerge before the age of 25 years in 75% of cases [7,8], representing a critical time for early intervention [9].”
- Authors
- McGorry, P. D., & Mei, C.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- McGorry, Patrick D
- Venue
- Evidence Based Mental Health
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2018-10-23
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 182-184
- ISSN
- 1362-0347 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-960X
- PMC
- PMC10270418
- OpenAlex
- W2897508754
- Cited by
- 391
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 53 · 2025: 86 · 2024: 70 · 2023: 55 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 3.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Evidence-Based Mental Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- early intervention, youth mental health, youth, mental health service reform, access to mental health care, integrated mental health care, transition to adult care, psychosis, service delivery
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Mental Disorders, Child, Humans, Young Adult, Early Medical Intervention
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