Teens and young adults with hallucinations, delusions or other symptoms of psychosis can get free help at OnTrack Hawaii, a new clinic near Ala Moana Center that offers a one-stop shop.

Schizophrenia typically emerges when people are in their late teens or 20s. It manifests with symptoms of psychosis, which involve losing touch with reality and can spiral downward if untreated. But with help, most people who experience psychosis do recover.

“The research has shown that catching people in that early stage, we can really make more gains with them,” said David Cicero, clinic director and associate professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “One of the unfortunate things is that for a lot of people, it’s not caught until it’s severe enough that people need to be hospitalized, usually for their own safety.”

The federally funded clinic works with youth and their families to understand what’s going on and chart individualized treatment plans. It is a joint project of UH-Manoa’s Psychology Department, the UH Medical School and the state Department of Health.

“Our clinic, which is the first of its kind in Hawaii, aims to help clients improve their quality of life,” Cicero said. “We call it OnTrack because we want to get people on track, back in work, school and relationships.”

The clinic, which opened Nov. 20, is designed for youth aged 15 to 24 who are within two years of their first symptoms of psychosis, but there is some flexibility in the age bracket, Cicero said.

The clinic offers patient-­centered decision making with a team of specialists providing treatment. Such early intervention has a long and successful history in alleviating psychosis in Australia and Europe, and is now being offered in the United States, Cicero said.

Every year in this country, about 100,000 adolescents and young adults experience their first episode of psychosis. A needs assessment for the Honolulu clinic indicated that about 45 young people on Oahu could develop psychosis each year, Cicero said.

But getting treatment typically takes far too long in this country: 74 weeks on average after the first episode of psychosis, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Other nations have reduced this delay to two to seven weeks, the report found.

Common symptoms of psychosis include delusions, such as false beliefs that one is being watched or is in danger; hallucinations in any of the senses, such as hearing voices or seeing things that aren’t real; and disorientation or confused thinking.

OnTrack Hawaii launched in 2015 in a single room at Krauss Hall at UH-Manoa and that site will continue to operate. But the new, expanded clinic at the Ala Moana Medical Building will provide a full complement of services at a single, easily accessible location.

“One of the philosophies of the clinic is that it’s a team-based approach and they come to us and get everything they need,” Cicero said. “We think it’s going to be really convenient for our clients and families.”

Dr. Stanton Michels, administrator of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division at the state Department of Health, said working with teens and young adults in their own setting is effective.

“Peer group is very important to young people,” Michels said. “One of the things that this program emphasizes is that they can learn from each other. They can have a place for therapy and for guidance that is tailored to their age group.”

“We just want to keep these individuals on track so they are not sidelined by society or other things that might go wrong,” he said. “We think we’ll have more impact if we treat them as a separate group, say as opposed to older adults that may be in their 40s or 50s and a have a long history of psychosis.”

The clinic provides individual and group therapy; medication management using shared decision-making with the patient; support in finding employment or returning to school; assistance for families; and case management.

About 30 clients enrolled in the UH-Manoa clinic over the past three years, and almost all of them are now in school or working, Cicero said. Others who didn’t meet the criteria were referred to other services and some clients dropped out.

Cicero encouraged young people who are experiencing symptoms of psychosis and their family members to contact the clinic for an assessment.

Services are offered regardless of ability to pay. Costs for OnTrack Hawaii are covered through a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

For information, call 808-956-6289 or email TrackHi@hawaii.edu.