Continuing on the Pathway: Supporting Psychosis-Informed Care for Youth and Young Adults in Massachusetts

Rebecca Wlcek, Brookline Center for Community Mental Health Charlene Flynn, Brookline Center for Community Mental Health Jessica Stern, Brookline Center for Community Mental Health Amanda Weber, Brookline Center for Community Mental Health Henry White, Brookline Center for Community Mental Health

One of the primary goals of the Mass-STEP plan is to devise a system of stepped care such that young people and their families are supported throughout their journey as they access and receive treatment for early psychosis. The Massachusetts Psychosis Access and Triage Hub (M-PATH) was created to function as one of the first steps in this journey. Since its launch in late 2022, M-PATH has worked with over 300 young people, families, and providers to offer support, education, resources, and referrals to specialized early psychosis programs. Recent initiatives to expand M-PATH’s services include working with primary care and pediatric practices, especially community health centers (CHCs), and connecting with non-behavioral health youth facing state agencies including DCF and DYS. We will describe these efforts and our plans for expanding this work. In working with providers, M-PATH’s goal has been to disseminate the idea of psychosis-informed care. Similar to trauma-informed care, we hope for providers to have enough information, resources, and confidence to talk with young people and their families about psychosis without needing to be experts in the subject. We will outline the principles of psychosis-informed care and describe the ways in which we are working to disseminate this in various settings. Additionally, M-PATH’s family partner and young adult peer mentor have been an integral piece of the work with youth and families. Their ability to share their own lived experiences, to be a listening ear, and to provide empathic support has profoundly impacted the youth, families, and organizations we serve. In the short time since they joined our team, our family partner and peer mentor have directly served more than 50 families and young people. We will share first-person feedback that we have received from families and discuss our plans for expanding these services moving forward.