Background
For the last 25 years, there has been progressively greater interest, from clinicians as well as researchers, in the prevention of psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia. As a result, programs have been established worldwide to treat young people who are at higher risk for developing psychosis, often referred to as “clinical high risk.” This summer, the Resilience and Prevention Program and the Psychosis Clinical and Research Program of the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry partnered to create the Resilience Evaluation-Social Emotional Training (RE-SET) Program. RE-SET is a specialized outpatient program for young people (ages 12-30) who show some signs of being at elevated risk for psychosis or another serious mental illness. RE-SET focuses on early detection, evaluation, and preventative treatment.  

Adolescents and young adults who are at clinically high risk for such conditions may experience changes in their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and may have experienced a decline in their ability to interact with friends or family, or function in school or at work. These changes in thoughts or behaviors might include: difficulty thinking clearly and expressing thoughts to others in a way that makes sense, hearing or seeing things that others don’t, experiencing new, unusual beliefs, such as being more suspicious of others’ motives or thinking people want to harm them or feeling that certain events or information have special, personal meaning for them. 

For those experiencing these or other changes like these, building resilience and the capacity to better manage emotions may reduce the risk of developing a serious psychiatric illness and having long-term consequences of these symptoms. Strengthening resilience-enhancing skills and treating these symptoms as early as possible may help to reduce distress, prevent declines in work and school performance, and improve one’s ability to have meaningful and satisfying social relationships.