Home-oriented management programme for people with early psychosis.

BACKGROUND

The HOMES (Home-Oriented Management of Early Psychosis) programme is a new home-based management programme for people presenting for the first time with psychotic illnesses. The present paper aims to present preliminary data as to the efficacy of this programme and factors identified as being associated with successful prevention of hospital admission.

METHOD

The programme applied to all the people presenting to the Dandenong Hospital Department of Psychiatry with first-episode psychosis who are considered suitable at first assessment for home-based management. A programme description is included in the paper. Prospective evaluation data on the first 31 people managed within the programme is presented.

RESULTS

Twenty-two out of 31 people were managed without the necessity for hospital admission. Illness severity was not related to the ability to manage this group of people outside of hospital. The level of social support and duration of untreated psychosis prior to treatment, may be most closely related to home-based treatment success.

CONCLUSIONS

Home-based management of people with first-episode psychosis is feasible and offers a viable alternative to admission for this group. Home-based treatment is dependent on the degree of social support but is independent of the degree of illness severity.