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Early Intervention in Psychosis Services (Norfolk and Waveney)

  • The Early Intervention in Psychosis Service supports people between the ages of 14 and 65 in Norfolk and Waveney who are experiencing symptoms of a first episode of psychosis. This service supports people for up to a three-year period and provides intervention to reduce the impact of the symptoms and support social recovery. The Early Intervention in Psychosis Service aims to help people who use the service, and their family, to understand more about the symptoms of psychosis and what treatments are available.

  • Service Manager Lead: Vicky Tingey
  • Service Contact: Service contact numbers Central Norfolk-01603 671901. Great Yarmouth and Waveney-01493 337929. West Norfolk-01553 736011.
  • Address:
    7 Unthank Road, Norwich, NR2 2PA Northgate Hospital,  Northgate Street, Great Yarmouth, NR30 1BU Chatterton House, King's Lynn, PE30 5PD
  • Service hours: Monday to Friday from 9:00 until 17:00.

What this service offers

Our Early Intervention in Psychosis Service supports people with psychosis. Symptoms may include: 

  • Hearing voices or seeing things others do not see

  • Feeling paranoid or mistrustful of others

  • Believing you can read other people's thoughts

  • Believing things which seem very unusual or strange to others

  • Not thinking clearly

  • Feeling worried that bad things may happen to you or other people

  • Believing you have special powers or are famous in some way.  

There may be other symptoms of psychosis too. 

National Standards for Early Intervention in Psychosis Services anticipate that those experiencing an identified first episode of psychosis will begin treatment within two weeks of being referred to this service. 

This service aims to develop a good relationship with people who use it so that it can understand their experiences and how they impact their life.  

The Early Intervention in Psychosis Service aims to meet service users wherever they feel comfortable and works with them to reduce any distress the symptoms are causing. We talk about the impact of stress and develop positive coping strategies with service users to help reduce future episodes of psychosis. 

Watch this video for more information: An overview of the Early Intervention in Psychosis Service - YouTube

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Psychosis (CBTp)

The experience of psychosis can leave some patients feeling anxious and fearful. Sometimes concerned that things won’t get better, or that they could become unwell again. For some it might be that experiences such as hearing voices continues for some time and this can be very confusing and upsetting. It could be that you feel down and unsure how things will improve for you.  

The Early Intervention team offers everyone a form of counselling called CBT. You can access this counselling at any time during your time with us and decide for yourself whether it is helpful. If you do want to try it out, you are free to take breaks and return to the counselling at any time. We will make every effort to focus on what is important to you. 

Watch this video for further information: Therapy in our Early Intervention in Psychosis Service - YouTube

Medication

Antipsychotics are a group of medicines used to treat psychosis. They help to reduce the distress caused by unusual experiences such as hearing voices and seeing things that are not there. They work by affecting one or more chemicals in the brain. Dopamine is the main chemical that they affect. Psychosis is mainly caused by overactivity of dopamine in some parts of the brain. Other medications may also be considered such as those used to treat anxiety and depression known as antidepressants.

We will involve you in discussions about which medication is right for you and work with you to ensure that we get it right. We will provide you with information and monitor you for any side effects.

You can visit www.choiceandmedication.org/nsft for more detailed information on specific medications.

Watch this video for further information: Psychiatry and medication in our Early Intervention in Psychosis Service - YouTube

Access this service

Referrals to the Early Intervention in Psychosis Service are accepted from GPs, practice nurses and secondary mental health professionals. The service asks these professionals to provide a brief history along with a rating scale when making a referral. 

Clear criteria for referrals to this service are established nationally based on the type and duration of symptoms being experienced. This informs the assessment process and whether the Early Intervention in Psychosis Service would be most appropriate to meet an individual’s needs. 

If you are concerned and are unable to get a referral from those mentioned above, you can call our team yourself or get someone in your family to request support.  

Our team

Our team offers help to guide you through your recovery. In considering treatment, we consider the whole person and all the factors that are affecting their health including physical, social and emotional factors

Case Manager

A case manager is someone who will work collaboratively with you to assess, plan, co-ordinate, monitor and evaluate your options and services available to you. This approach will be entirely person centred and aims to meet your health, social care, educational and employment needs. A case manager will communicate to our wider team of professionals to implement the best care and treatment available for you. They will often lead your care and be your main point of call throughout your time with the Early Intervention Team.

A case manager will be of a professional background of a Mental Health Nurse, Social Worker or an Occupational Therapist.

Peer Support Worker

The role of a peer support worker is to give you an opportunity to speak to someone else that has been on their own recovery journey. This will give you the chance to be able to relate at a time when you may be feeling alone and confused to what has happened to you. Through this the peer support worker aims to inspire and offer hope, and to encourage and empower you in your own recovery.

You can find out more about our Peer Support Workers in these videos:

Vocational Support

Your Early Intervention Team Vocational Worker can help you to develop your career, giving you access to training, education or work in a programme to suit you. Please speak with your case manager who can give you more information.  

Social Recovery

An essential part of recovery from Psychosis is getting back to a ‘normal life’. For each of us, our idea of a normal life and what we enjoy, will differ. We have peer support workers, assistant practitioners, vocational workers and occupational therapists working in our service line who can help you to think about what’s important to you, and what goals you’d like to achieve as you recover. We try to develop group activities that allow you to meet other service users and learn new skills; as well as offering 1:2:1 support to help you to engage with community activities and the things you enjoy. 

For more information about Social Recovery watch this video: What social recovery means - Early Intervention in Psychosis Service - YouTube

 

Visiting and onsite facilities

Early Intervention in Psychosis Service clinics are held in the following locations: 

Central Norfolk
7 Unthank Road 
Norwich 
NR2 2PA 

Great Yarmouth and Waveney 
Northgate Hospital 
Northgate Street 
Great Yarmouth 
NR30 1BU 

West Norfolk 
Chatterton House 
Goodwins Road 
King’s Lynn 
PE30 5PE

Free parking is available at our Great Yarmouth and West Norfolk clinics.  In central Norwich, there is no parking at 7 Unthank Road but there is two hours free street parking nearby.

How this service support carers including friends and family

Family Support

Seeing a loved one becoming unwell with Psychosis can be extremely distressing. A lot of the time, the family and friends of our service users have many questions about what is happening and need emotional support too. By offering this support, it is easier for us all to work together to support the person who is unwell. This may be through pre-arranged support calls where we can offer a friendly ear or via our Family Support Forum where we provide information about Psychosis and the Early Intervention Service through a group format. Please contact your case manager for more information. 

Where people have taken on a full-time carer's role, or if they are struggling to balance their caring duties with day to day life, our team refers them for a carer’s assessment. 

Family Interventions

We work closely to support people who access our service, their families, carers and other people who may be involved in their recovery journey. When someone becomes unwell it can have impact on relationships and increase levels of stress. We understand that this can be a time of uncertainty, sometimes leaving people not knowing what the best thing to do is. 

We will work with you and people who are important to you help you develop the skills to manage some of these difficulties and hopefully bring a sense of stability back following an episode of psychosis. All families, carers or those involved in supporting someone with psychosis should be routinely offered this support. 

If you would like to know more about how we deliver this support and how it helps, please speak to your Case Manager who can give you more information. Alternatively, you can follow the links provided where you can find out more. 

https://likemind.nhs.uk/files/resources/Family-intervention.pdf 

https://www.aft.org.uk/page/whatisfamilytherapy 

Family and Carers support within our Early Intervention in Psychosis Service - YouTube

Our podcasts

Terry and Jason are our Peer Support Workers for the Early Intervention in Norwich, they have lived experience of Psychosis.

"As Peer Support Workers we felt that it would be helpful to speak about psychosis using the CHIME framework within our podcasts. CHIME is an acronym for (Connections, Hope, Identity, Meaning and Empowerment). This is something both myself and Jason could relate to having been affected in our lives when we developed psychosis.

"Rebuilding these things back into our lives played an important role in both of our recovery journeys as did the other topics we talk about thereafter, so we thought this would be a good place to begin. Psychosis can look so different to different people, even the way we think about Psychosis can lead us to different conclusions and therefore different paths.

"Rather than choosing topics about delusions, hallucinations or paranoia or any other bold headings we decided to focus our attention on things that can be impact experiencing psychosis, from the point of view of the ‘struggle’ that Psychosis can bring to our lives. The narrative becomes how we grew as people because of our experiences of Psychosis.

"Other important topics that we felt we needed to include and give voice to were feeling lost, relationships, stigma, managing symptoms, acceptance, creativity, medication, drugs, and spirituality."

"We do hope the podcasts give an important message of not giving up on yourself in the process of your ‘struggle’ and we hope you find the topics help you too if you’re experiencing Psychosis."

Connections 

Hope 

Identity 

Meaning and purpose

Empowerment 

Acceptance 

Creativity 

Drugs and psychosis 

Relationships

Spirituality 

Not giving up 

Feeling lost 

Stigma

Websites and resources you may find useful

This video explains a bit about psychosis.

A series of short informational videos about this service

Our team have produced a series of short informational videos about this service, watch below:

Urgent help

If support is needed outside the working hours of the Early Intervention team, call your GP or contact the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment (CRHT) team on 0300 790 0371. 

If you are a service user and are in crisis and need support urgently you can contact your service on the number which will have been provided.  

Call 111 and select the mental health option to speak to our 24 hour mental health crisis line.

If you are with someone who has attempted suicide, call 999 and stay with them until the ambulance arrives. 

If anyone is at serious risk of harm, call 999 and ask for the police. 

For non-life threatening medical situations, call NHS111 on 111.  

For more information, see Help in a Crisis. 

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