Assertive Community Treatment

Question 1

What does ACT focus on?

Answer 1

• Focuses on client who have difficulties meeting personal goals, getting on with others, making and keeping friends and living independently.
• Focuses on a wide range of ordinary activities and chores based on what the client needs the most

Question 2

Who carries out ACT

Answer 2

• Multi-disciplinary approach team - psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors and social workers
  Staff available 24 hours a day

Question 3

How long is ACT

Answer 3

• ACT should be at least 120 minutes of contact per week

Question 4

What is the aim of ACT?

Answer 4

• aims to reduce hospitalisation and help patients adapt to weekly interventions life in the community

Question 5

Why is ACT used?

Answer 5

• To help those clients who have difficulties living independently.

Question 6

Where is ACT provided?

Answer 6

• either at home or in a sheltered accommodation.

Question 7

What have studies outside Europe shown?

Answer 7

• That ACT has resulted in reduced hospital bed use, improvement engagement with services and greater satisfaction with services.

Question 8

What does ACT involve?

Answer 8

• ACT involves caring for the person with schizophrenia in their own home, a way of preventing
  institutionalisation. ACT is used by community mental health services and focuses on clients who have difficulties meeting personal goals, getting on with others, making and keeping friends and living independently. This is individualised. ACT teams focus on a wide range of ordinary daily activities and chores, depending
  on a client’s most pressing needs; e.g., securing housing,
  meeting appointments, cashing checks, and shopping. therefore a holistic approach to care. Whole team approach
• psychiatrists, nurses, social workers - respond to client
  emergencies rapidly, low client:staff ratio. It is a lifelong
  service and there is no automatic termination

Question 9

ACT TEAM

Answer 9

-ACT teams include psychiatrists as well as other mental health clinicians. This team approach allows for integration of medication management, rehabilitation, and social services. ACT treatment is typically ongoing rather than time-limited, available 24 hours a day. 365 days a year and are highly individualized to each client’s changing needs. Services such as medication monitoring and psychological rehab is also available on weekends and in holidays for those who are most in need. The goals of ACT are to reduce hospitalization rates and help clients adapt to life in the community. ACT is most appropriate for individuals who are at high risk for repeated hospitalizations and have difficulty remaining in traditional
mental health treatment. ACT is used to help patients with Sz who have frequent relapses and bouts if hospitalisation.

Question 10

What are the characteristics of ACT?

Answer 10

• Characteristics of ACT:
  Multidisciplinary treatment teams with a low client to case manager ratio (eg, 10 to 1 rather than 30 to 1 or more) and hared caseloads among clinicians (rather than individual caseloads) Working with other professionals such as psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, and people with whom the treatment has worked, so that a whole team can focus on the individual in question. A commitment to spend as much time with the person as necessary in order to rehabilitate them and support them
  offering a holistic treatment, that looks at all of the individual’s needs, in a multi-disciplinary approach. Support is provided so that these everyday tasks do not make their symptoms worse.
• 24-hour coverage, including emergencies.
• ACT is offered long-term but not unlimited; the goal is to eventually transition you to other services or for you to maintain what you have learned on your own
  Close attention to illness management
• A focus on those who need the most help from the community health service.
• Helping with independence, rehabilitation, and recovery, and to avoid homelessness and rehospitalisation.
• Treatment of the patient in real-life settings - High frequency of contact with clients; and assistance with practical problems in living. So visiting them and helping, rather than offering therapies, with enough staff to offer this support and related treatment, therefore Most services
  provided in the community, rather than at the clinic
• A commitment to spend as much time with the person as necessary to rehabilitate them and support
  them offering a holistic treatment, that looks at all of the individual’s needs, in a multi-disciplinary
  approach.
  • If a patient’s condition worsens, they can be treated in a hospital setting or may be moved into sheltered accommodation if they cannot live by themselves.
• Working with other professionals such as psychiatrists, nurses, social workers and people with whom the treatment has worked, so that a whole team can focus on the individual in question.