{"id":7085,"date":"2020-08-27T14:33:42","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T18:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/?page_id=7085"},"modified":"2026-01-22T14:37:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:37:54","slug":"assertive-community-treatment-act","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"thumbnail wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 2010px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/880\/2025\/10\/nathan-anderson-unsplash-ACT-Description_op.png\" alt=\"image of the Blue Ridge Mountains near Robbinsville, NC in autumn\" width=\"2000\" height=\"800\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Nathan Anderson\/ Robbinsville, NC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<hr class=\" rule-double-fadecorder osc-rule\" \/>\n<strong>Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a self-contained trans-disciplinary team staffed with a team leader, psychiatrist, nurses, social workers, therapists, and specialists, such as in the area of co-occurring substance use treatment, employment and educational services, supportive housing, and peer-support services.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Team members work closely together to help adults with severe mental illness live in their homes instead of an institution or the streets. They provide a comprehensive array of services, such as helping find and maintain safe and affordable housing, get a job, learn about their mental health challenges and treatment choices, assist with harm reduction and substance abuse recovery, develop practical life skills, and provide medication oversight and support.<\/p>\n<p>ACT teams also assists with the overall health care needs of people served, and aim to work closely with individuals\u2019 families and other natural supports. To be most effective, ACT is to be recovery-oriented, strengths-based, and person-centered. Treatment is assertive in that the team is proactive and persistent in efforts to engage individuals who would likely benefit from this level of support. To provide intensive, comprehensive, and flexible services, small and large teams serve no more than 50 and 120 individuals, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Since its original implementation in Madison, Wisconsin in the 1970s, a fundamental charge of ACT is to be the first-line, if not sole provider of all services that ACT service recipients need. Extensive research showing ACT\u2019s positive effect on individuals\u2019 outcomes, particularly regarding reduced hospitalization, earned ACT the status as an evidence-based practice (EBP) in the 1990s. Although key ingredients of this model have remained the same, ACT, too, has evolved to harness the current psychosocial evidence-based treatments and practices to be delivered through the platform of ACT.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about the history and evolution of ACT through these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/resources\/\">resources<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a self-contained trans-disciplinary team staffed with a team leader, psychiatrist, nurses, social workers, therapists, and specialists, such as in the area of co-occurring substance use treatment, employment and educational services, supportive housing, and peer-support services. Team members work closely together to help adults with severe mental illness live in their &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97082,"featured_media":0,"parent":2405,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-7085","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) - UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) - UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a self-contained trans-disciplinary team staffed with a team leader, psychiatrist, nurses, social workers, therapists, and specialists, such as in the area of co-occurring substance use treatment, employment and educational services, supportive housing, and peer-support services. Team members work closely together to help adults with severe mental illness live in their &hellip; Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-22T19:37:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/880\/2025\/10\/nathan-anderson-unsplash-ACT-Description_op.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/\",\"name\":\"Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) - UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/880\/2025\/10\/nathan-anderson-unsplash-ACT-Description_op.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-27T18:33:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-22T19:37:54+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/880\/2025\/10\/nathan-anderson-unsplash-ACT-Description_op.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/880\/2025\/10\/nathan-anderson-unsplash-ACT-Description_op.png\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Scenic view of modern road winding through autumn foliage covered mountain range.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UNC Institute for Best Practices\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/\",\"name\":\"UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health\",\"description\":\"Department of Psychiatry\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) - UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/psych\/cecmh\/unc-institute-for-best-practices\/assertive-community-treatment-act\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) - UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health","og_description":"Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a self-contained trans-disciplinary team staffed with a team leader, psychiatrist, nurses, social workers, therapists, and specialists, such as in the area of co-occurring substance use treatment, employment and educational services, supportive housing, and peer-support services. 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