Citation

Nakhost A, Law SF, Francombe Pridham KM, Stergiopoulos V. Psychiatr. Serv. 2017; 68(9): 867-869.

Affiliation

Dr. Nakhost, Dr. Law, and Ms. Francombe Pridham are with Mental Health Services, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto. Dr. Stergiopoulos is with the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, Toronto. Dr. Nakhost, Dr. Law, and Dr. Stergiopoulos are also with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, American Psychiatric Association)

DOI

10.1176/appi.ps.201700195

PMID

28806892

Abstract

To serve a wider range of patients with serious mental illness and develop more integrated, flexible services, investigators in Toronto redesigned a high-fidelity assertive community treatment (ACT) team according to flexible ACT (FACT) principles. FACT, developed in the Netherlands, merges ACT and intensive case management (ICM) services. This model holds the promise of an affordable approach to addressing unmet service needs in community mental health, particularly for patients with complex health issues, by widening the ACT admission criteria. This enables the team to serve more patients and provide both ACT and ICM services according to patients' needs while allowing continuity of care.

Language: en

Keywords

Assertive community treatment; Community mental health services