They are either young and following the top curve with a good response to medication or they are from my generation with a history like the middle curve, enduring considerable disability. I am hearing more and more stories of young people with schizophrenia on atypical antipsychotics going back to work full time, getting married, and functioning at a much higher level than people of my generation. Ten years ago I never heard any stories of people recovering from schizophrenia. Adolescents between the ages of 16-25 are a very different population then an older generation of people with a long history of schizophrenia, although the females tend to be older at the first episode than the males. In London they don't stress a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder to the patient.
Adolescents can accept a psychotic episode easier than a permanent disabling disease.
If they follow the treatment they can be prevented. Only half of the patients in the London program have ever been hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital. Referrals come from a variety of sources. A diagnosis of psychosis doesn't depend on an involuntary admission to a hospital which means that the patient is a danger to themselves or others. I came across this term first reading up on ACT teams that have become popular of late.