Assertive Community Treatment

Assertive community treatment (ACT) is an intensive and highly integrated approach for community mental health service delivery. ACT teams serve individuals who have been diagnosed with serious and persistent forms of mental illness, predominantly but not exclusively the schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and its recipients often have histories of frequent psychiatric hospitalization, substance abuse, victimization and trauma, arrests and incarceration, and homelessness, with symptoms and complications that have led to serious functioning difficulties in work, social relationships, residential independence, money management and physical health.