CRISIS CENTER
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Team

The Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Team utilizes a service-delivery model that provides comprehensive treatment to people with serious and chronic mental illness. The ACT team may be contacted by calling (240) 777-1407.

ACT is comprised of a multi-disciplinary mental health staff, whose primary functions are to provide treatment, case management, and support services to clients to assist them in successful community living. ACT will work with those clients who have not successfully responded to traditional treatment provided by community mental health clinics because of inability to keep scheduled office-based appointments and failure to comply with prescribed medication. ACT interventions (i.e. treatment and rehabilitative services) takes place in community locations. This includes the client’s residence, neighborhood, place of employment or recreation, and at times, shelters, jails, and hospitals.

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Who Benefits From ACT?

• Montgomery County residents who are 18 years or older who have a severe and persistent mental illness causing symptoms and impairments which produce distress and major disabilities in adult functioning (i.e. employment, self-care, and social and interpersonal relationships).
  

• ACT clients are adults with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders or those who experience significant disability from other mental illnesses.
  

• People who have difficulty getting to appointments on their own as in the traditional model of case management, or who have not successfully been able to access the mental health system, or who have limited understanding of their need for help.

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Primary Goals of ACT:

• To lessen or eliminate the debilitating symptoms of mental illness each client experiences and to minimize or prevent acute episodes of the illness through support and education.
  

• To enhance the quality of life.
  

• To enhance an individual’s ability to live independently in his or her community.
  

• To improve functioning in adult social role or employment role.
  

• To lessen the family’s or significant other’s burden of providing care by providing support, education, and skill teaching.

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The Difference Between ACT
and Traditional Care:

The ACT multidisciplinary staff work as a team. The ACT team works collaboratively to deliver the majority of treatment, rehabilitation, and support services required by each client to live in the community. The individual is the consumer of the team, not the individual staff member. This team has the capacity to do whatever is required to help clients access and participate in their care.

For additional information, see the ACT team web site.

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