Monthly engagement with EIP keyworkers was associated with a five-fold increase in the odds of engagement with psychosocial interventions.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateThe overall study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (reference: RCPI RECSAF 79). All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Informed consent was obtained from each individual participant for the qualitative interviews. Permission for use of the quantitative data was provided by the clinical leads in the services. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsCD, GN, NOC, HR report no competing interests. KOC and RJ both have roles within the HSE. KOC is the National Clinical Lead for Early Intervention in Psychosis. RJ is the Programme Manager Mental Health within the Mental Health National Clinical Programmes. KOC and RJ were not involved in any element of study design, data collection or data analysis, but as EIP service providers they contributed to the writing and review of this paper. Competing interests CD, GN, NOC, HR report no competing interests. KOC and RJ both have roles within the HSE. KOC is the National Clinical Lead for Early Intervention in Psychosis. RJ is the Programme Manager Mental Health within the Mental Health National Clinical Programmes. KOC and RJ were not involved in any element of study design, data collection or data analysis, but as EIP service providers they contributed to the writing and review of this paper."

"Funding This research was funded by the office of the Mental Health National Clinical Programme, Health Service Executive."