Schizophrenia currently affects more than 2 million people in the United States, according to the National Institute of Mental Health website. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Community Mental Health Center of Lancaster County hope to improve early care for people diagnosed with schizophrenia by participating in a treatment study designed by NIMH.

The center will be just one of 35 locations nationwide to host NIMH’s Recovery after an Initial Schizophrenia Episode Early Treatment Project (RAISE ETP).

Mary Sullivan, director of RAISE ETP in Lincoln, stressed the importance of early treatment.

“Many people, when they start experiencing the symptoms (of schizophrenia), don’t go for treatment or help for over a year,” she said.

Doctors categorize symptoms into positive, negative and cognitive, according to NIMH. They include hallucinations, movement disorders, thought disorders, little interaction, problems focusing or paying attention and working memory problems.

Schizophrenia often shows up between the ages of 19 and 21.

“The role of UNL and the center is to be a community-based site for the study,” said Travis Parker, deputy director of the Community Mental Health Center of Lancaster County.

“We’re hoping what the outcomes of this study will demonstrate is that for people with schizophrenia, receiving treatment in a timely manner will decrease negative outcomes and improve the quality of life for the individual,” he said.

The center was created about 40 years ago. Parker estimated it helps about 6,000 people a year, 10 percent of whom deal with a disorder related to schizophrenia.

“It’s often a troubling and confusing time in that person’s life,” he said. “It can take a long time before that person or a person in their life decides they need help.”

Sullivan noted that Lincoln was considered for the project due to UNL’s psychology department and a well-respected lab for serious mental illnesses. The university formed the serious Mental Illness Research Group in the 1980s, currently led by Will Spaulding, a professor of psychology.

“Lincoln was chosen as a site for RAISE ETP based, in part, on the fine working relationship between the psychology department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Community Mental Health Center of Lancaster County,” Sullivan said.

Participants of the study volunteer to be assessed and receive individual treatment based on their strengths and specific problem areas.

The goal of the project is to get people the help they need as soon as possible and decrease the stigma associated with having a mental disorder, according to Sullivan.

“The RAISE Project will help people build on their strengths and the special assessments will help us focus on specific problem areas,” she said.