A five-year prospective evaluation of a new community psychosis service in North London: introducing the Recovery and Enablement Track (RET)

BackgroundUnited Kingdom mental healthcare guidelines recommend recovery-focused services for people with psychosis. We evaluated a “Recovery and Enablement Track” (RET) aiming to promote recovery and well-being, reduce distress and maintain independence from secondary care following discharge, for people with established psychosis and long histories of secondary care.MethodFrom March 2015 to December 2019, 214 individuals entered the RET and were followed up 12 months’ post-discharge. Recovery, well-being, and distress were measured at assessment, review, and discharge. Of 214 total people, 86 consented to inclusion for this evaluation.ResultsWell-being and recovery significantly improved from assessment to discharge – distress did not. Distress improved from review to discharge, suggesting improvement during service contact. 79% (68/86) of individuals were discharged to the care of their family doctor, and 22% of these (15/68) re-presented before 12-month follow-up.ConclusionRecovery and well-being improved from assessment to discharge, distress improved from review to discharge. Half of consenting participants were successfully discharged from secondary care following the RET, suggesting potential to promote recovery. Comparison to a formal control condition with systematic analysis of any biasing effect of missing data (i.e. through refusal to participate) is now indicated.