OUTPATIENT
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)
OVERVIEW
A proven approach to intensive mental health treatment, rooted in community and compassion
Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a specialized outpatient program that helps adults experiencing serious and long-lasting mental health challenges. The ACT team provides intensive, hands-on support to help people stay out of psychiatric hospitals, avoid problems with the law, and keep a stable place to live. We do this by helping people build routines, live on their own, take care of basic needs like food and health, and have healthy relationships.
The ACT team brings care directly to people where they live. This makes getting help easier and more convenient for folks who have not benefited from traditional services offered in offices and facilities.
Person-centered care
This program focuses on each person’s unique strengths, needs, and goals for the future. We seek to support each client’s recovery journey by helping them gain independence and build connections in their community.
Team-based support
Each client is assigned a team of experts who work together to support their goals – including a psychiatric provider, registered nurse, licensed mental health counselors and social workers, case manager, SUD (substance use disorder) counselor, vocational specialist, and peer support specialist. Individuals meet with multiple members of the team throughout their care.
Meeting clients where they are
Rather than asking clients to come to us, we bring comprehensive support to them by meeting them in their home, in community settings (such as a coffee shop, restaurant, or public park), in homeless shelters, or wherever is most beneficial for them. This approach reduces the barriers to care by bringing help directly to their doorstep.
Hands-on approach
The ACT team meets with most clients several times a week, giving support when and where it is needed. Seeing clients more regularly helps us play a bigger part in their healing and recovery journey.
Evidence-based treatment
ACT is evidence-based, meaning it is a data-driven approach that is proven to be an effective tool for improving outcomes among adults with serious mental illness. Studies show that ACT clients report fewer psychiatric symptoms, hospital stays, and emergency department visits after treatment.
Long-term wellness
While the goal of ACT is to eventually help clients transition to less intensive levels of care, the program provides long-term support to individuals. Our team establishes deep connections with each person, serving as an anchor of stability – regardless of the storms they are weathering in their lives.
SERVICES
Comprehensive care to help people with serious mental illness live independently
The power of ACT is that it is flexible and focused on each person’s needs and goals. This allows our team to provide a wide range of services to fit your individualized treatment plan.
Outpatient mental health and substance use care
Our team treats the root causes of serious mental illness and substance use through therapy and psychoeducation so that clients can better understand their condition(s). We also provide comprehensive assessments and crisis intervention to better support each client.
Connect with peers for validation and empowerment
We believe in the power of shared experience and recovery. Our Peer Support Specialists provide support and guidance to clients based on their own lived experience with mental illness and/or substance use.
Navigating other services and resources
For those experiencing serious mental illness, getting the treatment they need can take a back seat if they are also struggling to get basic needs like food and housing. Our case managers help overcome these barriers to health and wellness by helping clients find reliable transportation (to/from appointments and work), apply for public benefit programs, schedule medical care, and secure affordable housing.
Managing and monitoring psychiatric prescriptions
Our psychiatric providers help clients order their mental health medications, as well as monitor and manage prescriptions to support long-term treatment and recovery through prescribed medications, while minimizing any side effects.
Vocational and employment assistance
We offer vocational support to help clients learn skills for a job or for their life, allowing them opportunities to further integrate into their community. This critical connection helps individuals find long-term stability, purpose, and set healthy goals.
To be eligible for Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), a person must be an adult (18 or older) with a serious and ongoing mental illness—such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, another psychotic disorder, or bipolar/depression with psychotic features—and need a high level of support.
The ACT program is for people who live in Boulder or Broomfield counties and have experienced at least two of the following:
- Two or more psychiatric hospital stays in the past year, or a history of repeated hospitalizations;
- Ongoing or returning mental health symptoms;
- Recent trouble with the law (such as arrests, jail time, or court supervision) related to mental illness;
- Currently unhoused, at risk of losing housing, or living in unsafe or unstable housing because of mental illness
- A co-occurring disorder present for at least 6 months;
- Major difficulty with everyday tasks, such as paying bills, keeping appointments, getting medical or housing help, staying safe, eating regularly, or maintaining hygiene.
People can refer themselves to this program, or they can be referred by a loved one, health provider, hospital, law enforcement, or court.