For Clinicians
Our goal is to improve long-term outcomes for individuals with early psychosis through improving identification and facilitating access to appropriate care as early as possible. Psychosis is a set of experiences that makes it difficult for a person to differentiate what is real and what is not real. Psychotic symptoms can include hallucinations (seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not there), delusions (false beliefs), and disorganized thinking. When someone is experiencing psychosis, it is important to have a timely evaluation for appropriate treatment as psychosis can be caused by medical conditions, mental health conditions, and substance use.
The sooner individuals with early psychosis are identified and engage in appropriate treatment (or have shorter duration of untreated psychosis (DUP)), the better outcomes generally are.
EPI-NC has 6 clinics across the state that treat First Episode Psychosis. We have accumulated resources for medical providers, therapists, peer support specialists, and supported employment specialists and placed them under this page. If you are a community provider or part of an inpatient mental health unit and would like to be connected to the North Carolina FEP network, please email EPI-NC.
EPI-NC Background
Early Psychosis Intervention Advisors of North Carolina was founded in 2015 and is supported by a SAMHSA NC Mental Health Block Grant and the NC Department of Health and Human Services. EPI-NC works to guide and assist the expansion of early psychosis services in North Carolina. EPI-NC has expanded to help support the development of innovative programming in service of increasing access and improving care for the early psychosis population.