The study suggests that the CAN is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing the needs of people with severe mental illness. It is easily learnt by staff from a range of professional backgrounds, and a complete assessment took, on average, around 25 minutes.
The evidence supports a community-oriented rather than a hospital-oriented approach and there is little difference between the community mental health team models.
The lack of clearly demonstrated improvements for COAST is consistent with the published literature so far. The fact that both groups improved in symptoms and functioning over the year suggests that while access to early intervention is helpful, community adult mental health teams should aim to offer high quality input at any stage of psychosis in order to meet client and carer needs.
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