Peter is an Emeritus Professor of Community Psychiatry at Imperial College, London and a consultant in Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. He was formerly the Editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry where he wrote a regular column strewn with rhyming doggerel. He now feels he can graduate to poetry, and sonnets attract him by their need to convert complexity to order.

EIS Reunion

The Early Intervention Service was set up in 1987. It was one of 17 two-year demonstration projects initiated by the then Conservative government to assist the development of community psychiatry. Although this type of initiative was popular politically it was not effective in practice and 16 of the services did not survive. The exception was the Early Intervention Service, which true to its title, provided community intervention at the point of referral to all patients in Paddington and North Kensington in central London, including referrals from general practitioners and psychiatric services.  The Early Intervention Service (EIS) was highly regarded in the area but no other services attempted to copy its function. Instead the decision was made to create geographical sectors and split up the team into each sector. The split was made in 1994.

In July, 2023 a reunion dinner for the Early Intervention Service held in central London.  This poem was created for the occasion.  

They honed in from different bournes
Looking for a new beginning
A spark, a hope, in all its forms
Ambition too, a chance of winning
Attracted by a short invitation
‘New staff required, an Inner London team
For a tightly packed conurbation
Good mental health care is our dream
And if you’re bold and tough and strong
This team is where you’ll all belong’

The Early Intervention Service
Yes, we were the first to choose this name
But some other folk looked on nervous
As they too yearned to be in the frame
So they picked upon a diagnosis
That at the time was all the rage
‘Early Intervention for Psychosis’
Would now forth take centre stage

They said by intervening early
Of this they were absolutely sure
They could wrap it up quite securely
Find out its cause, its genes, a cure
But were they right? The answer we now know
It did not work; we are no further on
They should have left the EIS to grow
Alone, treasured and loved by everyone
Because it was we who had no barriers
We saw everyone that came 
The lost, the homeless, late tarriers
Failing always, time and time again

We did not judge, we buckled down
Assessed each complex itinerary
And if we got lost, the right path was found
By work true cross-disciplinary
We argued sometimes, but most of all we smiled
Indeed we were a happy crew
And many others were quite beguiled
By our constant laughs and joy on view
Indeed some wag was forced to say
After being asked ‘when push comes to shove
What keeps this team on its virtuous way?’ 
Replied, ‘I think they’re all in love’

But then others gathered round the cake
‘If this is so good we want a slice
Split up the team and we can make
Four EIS’s in a trice’
So our time was up, we had forged a path
Though others followed they did not compare
And this shall be our epitaph
‘This team showed all the way to care’