DOI: 10.1192/bjp.2026.10790 ISSN: 0007-1250

Fidelity, flexibility and leadership in national early intervention in psychosis implementation: lessons for mental health reform from England and Ireland

Karen O’Connor, Jo Smith

Summary

National implementation of early intervention in psychosis offers a lens on sustaining evidence-based mental health reform at scale. Experience from England and Ireland highlights tensions between fidelity and flexibility, the centrality of capacity and the need for system-level leadership to protect core mechanisms and prevent dilution during national roll-out.