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Aim: A substantial gap between young people's need for mental health care services and their actual access to such services led worldwide organizations (e.g., the WHO) to recommend the implementation of early intervention programs and youth mental health services. Some countries around the world have established structures to meet this recommendation. In this paper, we describe soulspace as the first integrated youth mental health service for young people aged between 15 and 35 years in Berlin, Germany., Methods: We introduce soulspace as easily accessible mental health care for young people, and we characterize soulspace along the lines of the internationally established eight key principles of integrated youth mental health services (Killackey, et al., 2020, World Economic Forum). Soulspace is a cooperation between clinical outpatient units of psychiatric clinics for adolescents and young adults as well as a community-based counselling service. It provides initial contact, counselling, diagnostics, and treatment., Results: Our analyses of the pathways to soulspace and the characteristics of the soulspace users suggest that the low threshold is a facilitator to help finding for young people in comparison to more conventional early intervention models. That is, having transferred the early intervention center in a youth-facing counselling service as was done in soulspace seems to have reduced the threshold to seek help for families and for young people in need for support., Conclusions: In summary, with soulspace, an easily accessible mental health care service was established that integrates counselling and specialized psychiatric treatment if needed., (© 2024 The Authors. Early Intervention in Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Background: The present study evaluated service use of our newly established Early Intervention and Treatment Centre (FRITZ) in Berlin for young adults with first or early psychosis with and without migration background., Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of in-patients with early psychosis who were admitted to FRITZ between May 2014 and May 2015. We investigated the proportion of patients with migration background, sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients., Results: Corresponding to the proportion of migrants in the catchment area, 35 % of our service users from the catchment area (n = 60) had a migration background. Migrants had a better social adaption, but showed lower insight into illness, less substance induced psychoses and less inpatient admissions. The majority of all patients were admitted to FRITZ via the emergency department., Conclusions: The findings indicate that FRITZ was almost equally well received by patients with and without migration background. Patients with migration background showed distinct sociodemographic and clinical characteristics that could be relevant for treatment. Implications for future clinical practice are discussed., Competing Interests: Andreas Bechdolf: Vortragshonorare, Reisestipendien von Janssen Cillag, Lilly, Lundbeck, Otsuka. Forschungsförderung von Otsuka, DFG , BMBF, NARSAD und Janssen Cillag.Karolina Leopold: Vortragshonorare, Reisestipendien von AstraZeneca, Janssen Cillag, Lilly, Lundbeck, Otsuka, Pfizer. Forschungsförderung von Otsuka, AstraZeneca und Janssen Cillag., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)