EASA Services

Refer anyone who you believe may be experiencing the early signs of psychosis. If a person is having new, significant, and worsening difficulties in several of the following areas, call for a consultation:

1. Reduced performance
   • Trouble reading or understanding complex sentences
   • Trouble speaking or understanding what others are saying
   • Becoming easily confused or lost
   • Trouble in sports or other activities that used to be easy (example: can't dribble basketball or pass to team members)
   • Attendance problems related to sleep or fearfulness
2. Behavior changes
   • Extreme fear for no apparent reason
   • Uncharacteristic actions or statements that make no sense
   • Impulsive and reckless behavior (giving away belongings, etc.)
   • New, bizarre beliefs
   • Incoherent or bizarre writing
   • Extreme social withdrawal
   • Decline in appearance and hygiene
   • Dramatic changes in sleep (sleeping almost not at all or all of the time)
   • Dramatic changes in eating behavior
3. Perceptual Changes
   • Fear that others are trying to hurt them
   • Heightened sensitivity to sights, sounds, smells, or touch
   • Making statements like "my brain is playing tricks on me"
   • Hearing voices or other sounds that others don't
   • Reporting visual changes (colors more intense, faces distorted, lines turned wavy)
   • Racing thoughts
   • Feeling like someone else is putting thoughts into their brain or that others are reading their thoughts

Psychosis is a broad term that covers many different symptoms and experiences. Common symptoms include:

• Hallucinations (seeing, hearing, feeling, or smelling things that others do not)
• Feeling overwhelmed by sensory information (lights seem too bright, sounds too loud)
• Difficulty filtering out stimulation from the environment
• Delusions (false personal beliefs based on incorrect inferences about reality which are inconsistent with culture and previous beliefs, and which are firmly sustained in spite of evidence or proof to the contrary)
• Confused thinking or speech
• Difficulty doing ordinary things (often includes problems with memory, attention, putting thoughts together)

Psychosis is most likely to first occur during young adulthood, and because every individual's experience is different, the EASA team takes time to identify the possible causes of the psychosis based on an individualized assessment. The EASA team works with individuals whose psychosis may be diagnosed as a schizophrenia-related condition.

Psychosis can happen to anyone. It affects approximately 3 in 100 people and a full recovery is absolutely possible.

There are many possible causes of psychosis, including physical illness, drug use, trauma, prolonged insomnia, high levels of stress, and/or biological predisposition.

EASA Clinical Teams provide the following services:

• Access to community resources
• Assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning by Mental Health Professionals specifically trained in early psychosis work
• Assistance with knowing rights and available benefits
• Crisis and relapse planning
• Education and support for individuals and primary support systems
• Goal setting and planning
• Group and individual counseling
• Independent living skill development
• Individualized assessment, diagnosis, and treatment planning
• Medication support
• Mentoring and opportunities to meet others
• Occupational therapy
• Outreach and engagement
• Resource brokering and advocacy
• Support for work and school settings

EASA works closely with family members and others who are supportive of the individual to help them succeed.

• Don't feel guilty; you are not responsible for the illness.
• Remember to take care of yourself.
• Remember that you are not alone.
• Remember that the young person is still the same person you know and love.
• Talk to the EASA team about how to be a partner in the young person's recovery.
• Get support by attending the group meetings the EASA team offers. Visit the State EASA website for more information about psychosis and for support and education.
• Follow the EASA Family Guidelines (PDF) (EASA Family Guidelines - Spanish (PDF))

The EASA Center for Excellence provides the following services using program feedback, experience, and evidence-based practices.

• Community education and public speaking to groups
• Professional training and consultation

Services are based on practice guidelines developed by the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Center (EPPIC), and best practice guidelines from the United States. The EASA Technical Assistance Team also offers community education, training, and technical assistance to individuals and organizations who are committed to providing effective services for young people with psychosis.

Mid-Valley Behavioral Care Network (MVBCN) started EASA in 2001. MVBCN is an intergovernmental managed mental health care program started after the Oregon Health Plan. When EASA began, it consisted of Marion, Polk, Linn, Yamhill, and Tillamook Counties. Oregon Health Authority began to take responsibility in 2008 after the legislature funded the beginning of statewide expansion. EASA was originally based on the work of the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Center (EPPIC) in Melbourne, Australia (now Orygen), and evolved to integrate additional evidence-based practices.

The mission of EASA is to improve services for individuals with early psychosis and their families.