Community Programs for Outreach and Intervention with Youth and Young Adults at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (Short Title: CHR-P)

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2018 Community Programs for Outreach and Intervention with Youth and Young Adults at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis Grant Program (Short Title: CHR-P). The purpose of this program is to identify youth and young adults, not more than 25 years old, at clinical high risk for psychosis and provide evidence-based interventions to prevent the onset of psychosis or lessen the severity of psychotic disorder. It is expected that this program will: (1) improve symptomatic and behavioral functioning; (2) enable youth and young adults to resume age-appropriate social, academic, and/or vocational activities; (3) delay or prevent the onset of psychosis; and (4) minimize the duration of untreated psychosis for those who develop psychotic symptoms. SAMHSA and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) encourage partnerships between service grant applicants and mental health researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of stepped-care intervention strategies for youth and young adults at clinical high risk for psychosis. Research studies conducted within the context of the CHR-P program should be proposed through separate NIH research project grant applications. NIMH plans to issue a Notice directing research grant applicants to appropriate funding mechanisms. For the purpose of this FOA, youth and young adults refers to individuals up to the age of 25 years. Clinical high risk for psychosis refers to individuals who exhibit noticeable changes in perception, thinking, and functioning which typically precedes a first episode of psychosis (FEP). During this pre-psychosis phase, individuals exhibit one or more of the following: attenuated psychotic symptoms, brief intermittent psychotic episodes, or trait vulnerability coupled with marked functional deterioration. Stepped care refers to an approach in which patients start with the least intensive evidence-based treatment. Patients who do not respond adequately to the first–line treatment are offered an evidence-based treatment of higher intensity, as clinically indicated.