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Award wining project shows the way to help thousands back to education or employment
15 November 2007
Psychosis is a devastating illness which can affect young people at a crucial stage in their development. A third of people under the age of 35 on long-term unemployment benefit have a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
The success of an early intervention service to get over 80 percent of the young people they see back into work or education after their first experience of a psychotic illness has been recognised by the Bupa Foundation.
Dr James Woolley from Springfield Hospital, Tooting, has trialled a service which combines vocational rehabilitation with medical care to encourage participation in work and study opportunities as soon as possible after they have recovered from their initial treatment.
As a result of this holistic approach to the individual's health and wellbeing, 81 percent of those seen at the London-based early intervention centre were back at work or in education within 18-months.
For their achievement in bucking a national trend, they have won the Bupa Foundation medical research charity's Clinical Excellence Award.
Dr Woolley said: "We encourage participation in mainstream employment and education opportunities not just in the mental health setting. We do this to try and achieve an increased sense of autonomy, responsibility and maturity in patients rather than becoming passive recipients of mental health services. This award means we can really raise the profile of our work and demonstrate to other early intervention services how they can integrate this into their everyday work. "
The vice-chairman of the Bupa Foundation, Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen, said: "This project has proved that early intervention in the treatment of young people with schizophrenia can have enormous benefits. This is a real success story and will provide help for thousands of people."
Dr James Woolley received his Bupa Foundation Award at a ceremony at Lincoln's Inn in London on the evening of 14 November 2007.
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