Aim: In 2016, the Access and Waiting Time Standard (AWTS) was introduced in England, UK, outlining that people with first-episode psychosis should receive treatment from an early intervention for psychosis (EIP) service within two weeks. We examined sociodemographic, pathways to care (PtC), and clinical factors associated with EIP service wait time. Method: We collected de-identified data from a large mental health provider in South London, UK. We included patients referred and accepted to EIP services as inpatient or community contacts between 1st May 2016 and 30th April 2019, providing 3 years of data from the introduction of AWTS. Descriptive statistics and multivariable linear regression were performed. Results: A total of 1806 patients were identified with a mean age of 30 (SD:10.7) years, of whom 86.3% (n=1559) accessed community EIP and 13.7% (n=247) accessed inpatient EIP; of these, 26.7% were not seen within 2 weeks. Community EIP patients waited longer adj.β =2.21 days (95% CI: 2.05 – 2.37) compared with inpatient EIP patients, and being older was associated with longer wait time. Conversely, a shorter wait time was associated with A&E [adj.β = -0.22 days (95% CI: -0.36, -0.10)] and ‘other’ [adj.β = -0.21 days (95% CI: -0.36, -0.03)] PtC. White non-British and South Asian patients had shorter wait times compared with White British patients; however, this difference diminished after adjusting for PtC and clinical factors. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that individual factors, PtC, and mode of contact influence wait time for EIP services. More than a quarter of patients were not seen within 2 weeks, indicating that targeted support in community EIP services is needed to meet clinical guidelines.

Aim: Research has shown that people from ethnic minority backgrounds living with psychosis are less likely to seek support from healthcare professionals (e.g. GP), but more likely to seek support from non-healthcare professionals (e.g. faith leaders). This systematic review assessed the impact of community-level interventions aimed at improving help seeking and access to support for psychosis in non-secondary care settings among ethnic minority populations. Methods: The EMBASE, PsychINFO, Medline Ultimate, CINAHL Ultimate and Scopus databases were searched in December 2023. Studies were included if published in English, conducted in high-income countries, reported on psychosis and minority ethnic groups aged 18-65 years, and interventions targeted at people from minority ethnic groups with or at risk of psychosis, caregivers, or the general public. Outcomes of interest were changes in help-seeking behaviours, pathways to care characteristics and barriers and facilitators of intervention implementation. Results: Five studies reporting two interventions met the inclusion criteria. All studies were conducted in the United States. Narrative synthesis revealed mixed results about the effectiveness of interventions on help seeking and duration of untreated psychosis. However, the results show promise for professional help-seeking recommendations post-intervention across the studies. Barriers and facilitators were identified for intervention implementation. Conclusions: Community-level interventions have some success in promoting help-seeking for psychosis in ethnic minority populations. However, research in this area was limited. Future research could include studies across different countries, ethnicities, genders and socioeconomic status to ensure generalisable results.