Elevating Evidence-Based Community Mental Health and Rehabilitation Practices

The Institute for Best Practices is part of the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health within the Department of Psychiatry at UNC-Chapel Hill. Established in close partnership with the NC Department of Health and Human Services, the Institute advances high-fidelity implementation of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model of Supported Employment — two of the most rigorously studied models in community mental health.

ACT has been available in North Carolina for over 20 years, though routine fidelity monitoring was largely absent until 2013, which is also when IPS was first implemented in the state. Institute Director Dr. Lorna Moser is a co-author of the TMACT, the leading ACT fidelity measure, and has provided training, consultation, and evaluation services nationally and internationally. The broader Institute team brings the same depth of experience: staff have led ACT and IPS teams, overseen multiple teams simultaneously, or built deep expertise as practitioners. That firsthand knowledge shapes how we support the programs and people we work with.

We recognize that implementing these models well is demanding, and we have genuine respect for the providers and practitioners who do it. While our ultimate aim is for individuals with serious mental illness to have access to quality, recovery-oriented services, our primary audience is the workforce itself. Strengthening providers is how we strengthen the services they deliver.

The Institute works closely with the North Carolina ACT Coalition, a grassroots provider network serving as both an advocacy body and a learning collaborative, and partners with state mental health authorities and funders to align policy with fidelity expectations and address system-level implementation barriers. Effective implementation requires the right conditions at every level, including the policy and funding environment in which providers operate.

Our work is further informed by mental health services research. Dr. Moser is Principal Investigator on the National ACT Study, funded by Arnold Ventures, the largest descriptive study of ACT to date, generating critical knowledge on implementation, fidelity, and team characteristics across the United States that directly informs our training and consultation.

Each year, the Institute hosts the ACT and IPS Annual Conference, which has grown steadily in attendance and geographic reach, drawing providers from across multiple states. The conference reflects the Institute’s broader commitment to advancing the field, not only serving individual programs, and has become a valued gathering point for the ACT and IPS provider community.