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Up to half of those people who experienced their first episode of psychosis 18 months ago have still not received any specialist help, according to the director of operations at mental health charity Rethink, writes Katie Leason.

Andrew Higby told the Community Care Live conference that on 21 November 2001, 100 people would have experienced their first psychotic episode, but that 50 of them would not have received specialist assistance to this day.

Of those who did receive help, 35 per cent would have been turned away, he said, on the basis that they were “not ill enough”, and 50 per cent would have been subjected to compulsory treatment as their first experience of care.

In addition, two people would have committed suicide, and another five to seven are likely to do so in the next three years.

Higby pointed out that early intervention made moral and common sense, as “psychosis kills young people”.