Purpose

Social workers are employed in a broad range of community settings, in which they may be able to identify youth with emerging psychotic symptoms and facilitate connection to specialized services. Methods: This randomized controlled trial tested the efficacy of a training intervention for social workers (N = 959) intended to increase the volume of referrals and rate of successful referrals to specialized early psychosis services. Results: During the 2-year study period, referrals to the early intervention program nearly doubled, t (df = 11) = 5.46, p < 0.001. Additionally, the rate of successful referrals was greater among social workers who received the active training (41.7%) compared to the other referral sources (19.2%), X² (df = 1, n = 311) = 3.69, p = 0.055. Conclusions: The active training was associated with a marginally greater rate of successful referrals. Overall referrals increased greatly during the training period although this could not be linked to specific participants, suggesting contamination effects may have increased community awareness of early intervention services.

目的

社会工作者在广泛的社区环境中受雇，在这些环境中，他们可能能够识别出现新出现的精神病症状的青年，并促进与专业服务的联系。方法：这项随机对照试验测试了社会工作者（N = 959）培训干预的有效性，旨在增加转诊量和转诊到专门的早期精神病服务的成功转诊率。结果：在 2 年的研究期间，转诊到早期干预计划的人数几乎翻了一番，t (df = 11) = 5.46，p < 0.001。此外，与其他转介来源 (19.2%) 相比，接受过主动培训的社工 (41.7%) 的成功转介率更高，X² (df = 1, n = 311) = 3.69, p = 0.055。结论：积极的培训与略高的成功转介率相关。尽管这无法与特定参与者相关联，但在培训期间总体转诊人数大幅增加，这表明污染影响可能提高了社区对早期干预服务的认识。