Presentation Information
[SY-1-04]Recent Development in Assertive Community Treatment Model
*Samuel F. Law (University of Toronto(Canada))
Keywords:
Assertive community treatment (ACT),Community psychiatry,cultural psychiatry,flexible ACT
In this presentation, we will briefly review the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model that was first created in the USA in the 1970s to serve those who have severe and persistent mental illness and came to live in the community after the deinstitutionalization movement. ACT has been well researched to be effective in reducing hospitalization and improving quality of life for patients in the USA and other international settings such as Canada, Australia and some European settings, but mixed or no improvement results were found in other parts of the world, particularly England. We will explore some key understanding of these differences, leading to introduction of some recent developments in the Assertive Community Treatment model such as Flexible ACT (FACT) pioneered in the Netherlands. Discussion on ACT model implementation in global context is of current interest as different economic, cultural, and contextual evidence on effectiveness require careful consideration.