Is early intervention a waste of valuable resources?

It is now government policy in England to have a psychosis early-intervention service. The blueprint for the National Health Service (NHS) called the NHS Plan3 says about early intervention: ‘it reduces the period of untreated psychosis’, and therefore ‘50 early intervention teams will be established’ and that, ‘by 2004, all young people who experience their first episode of psychosis will receive the early intensive support they need’, and £50 million of new money is being put towards it.