[Young urban adults suffering from psychosis: the importance of close team work]

Untreated psychosis causes a lot of suffering and its impact echoes on different aspects of the affected individual's functioning. In city centers, youths presenting early psychosis face additional challenges because many of them live in precarious, unstable conditions and are isolated. Reorganisation of mental health care access and delivery is necessary to avoid delay for psychosis identification and treatment initiation. This article describes possible solutions which have been applied at Clinique JAP, a specialized early psychosis intervention clinic at the CHUM, which offers integrated services to optimize outcome. To increase engagement and adherence to treatment, treatment setting must include a welcoming and youth-friendly atmosphere, individualized and flexible interventions, and nourishing optimistic but realistic hope. Intensive interventions by a specialized interdisciplinary team, in collaboration with community organizations, must be offered in a proactive way to reduce delay in treatment and therefore avoid disastrous consequences of psychosis.