Assertive Community Treatment Team

The Assertive Community Treatment Team is a service provided by an interdisciplinary team that ensures service availability 24 hours a day, 7 days per week and is prepared to carry out a full range of treatment functions wherever and whenever needed. A service recipient is referred to the Assertive Community Treatment Team service when it has been determined that his/her needs are so pervasive and/or unpredictable that they cannot be met effectively by any other combination of available community services. Typically this service should be targeted to the ten percent (10%) of MH/DD/SA service recipients who have serious and persistent mental illness or co-occurring disorders, dual and triply diagnosed and the most complex and expensive treatment needs. The service objectives are addressed by activities designed to: promote symptom stability and appropriate use of medication; restore personal, community living and social skills; promote and maintain physical health; establish access to entitlements, housing, work and social opportunities; and promote and maintain the highest possible level of functioning in the community. ACT Teams should make every effort to meet critical standards contained in the most current edition of the National Program Standards for ACT Teams as established by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill or US Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Mental Health Services.