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Mental Health
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early intervention and primary careThe delivery of mental health services is often characterized by long waiting lists. In addition, when services are provided, there is often little continuity and co-ordination between the agencies and the professionals who are involved. This can be frustrating to those in need of such services and those who provide them. There is evidence that prompt delivery of psychiatric assessment and treatment, providing such services within a context of continuity of care over time, and co-ordination between primary care services and psychiatric treatment, leads to better outcomes.One focus of this within mental health research at Lawson is the effectiveness of early intervention programs on treatment outcomes, particularly with reference to psychotic disorders (Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychoses – PEPP) and mood and anxiety disorders (First Episode Mood and Anxiety Program – FEMAP). Issues being investigated include methods of reducing treatment delay, the relationship between treatment delay and outcomes, the identification of other malleable predictors of treatment outcome and the role of continuity of care in improving treatment outcomes. The basic pathophysiology and psychopathology of the early stages of these diseases is also being investigated, as well as the role of marijuana use in determining the onset and course of such illnesses. Another research focus has been on the benefits of shared care models of service delivery, in which psychiatric specialists and primary care practitioners consult and co-operate in providing in improving service delivery and outcomes for those needing mental health services. 
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