Early intervention with difficult to engage, 'high-risk' youth: evaluating an intensive outreach approach in youth mental health.

Background: Although intensive outreach (IO) models such as assertive community treatment and intensive case management have a strong evidence base in adult psychiatry, their effectiveness in the early intervention sector is unknown.

Aim: To explore client characteristics and treatment effects in a group of difficult to engage, 'high-risk' young people, seen by the Intensive Mobile Youth Outreach Service (IMYOS, ORYGEN Youth Heath) in Western Metropolitan Melbourne.

Methods: The clinical files of 47 clients were audited, targeting demographic and treatment outcome data prior to and during IMYOS involvement.