National ACT Virtual Meetings & Discussion Forum to Address Impact of COVID-19

Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a multidisciplinary, team-based model that provides intensive community-based and outreach-oriented services to people who experience the most severe and persistent mental illness. The vast majority also have a co-occurring substance use disorder and many experience comorbid medical illnesses as well as homelessness. This is a vulnerable population and their providers – ACT teams – are at elevated risk themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Virtual Meetings

The Northwest MHTTC is partnering with the Institute for Best Practices at the University of North Carolina to host and facilitate regular meetings for ACT teams.

Goals of the meetings are to:

• connect with one other
• share strategies and resources for adapting team practices and communications   
• facilitate connection to the most up-to-date resources during the COVID-19 outbreak.
   

Virtual Discussion Forum

In addition to the meet-up, we have also created a Virtual Discussion Forum to help organize information, resources, and strategies used across teams. You can participate in the forum as a guest, or sign up as a member. Within the Discussion Forum are specific board topics:

• Support for ACT Service Recipients;
• Support for ACT Team Staff;
• Info and Updates: Federal Sources;
• Info and Updates: State and Local Sources; ACT Fidelity and COVID-19 Pandemic; and Words of Encouragement.
• Click on a board of interest to read existing threads, react to threads, or post new threads.
• Recordings of prior meetings are also posted at this forum.

Speakers

Brittany Barbour- Outreach Team Leader, MSW, LMSW

Leon Farrar- Program Manager, MSW, LCSW

Don Shipp- ACT Teams Program Manager, MSW, LCSW

Topic

Outreach and Engagement of Vulnerable Populations: Barriers and Successes during COVID-19

Places for People is a community mental health agency in St. Louis Missouri. This presentation will provide information on assertive outreach strategies during COVID-19 for un-housed and housing insecure populations experiencing severe and persistent mental health and/or substance use disorders.

For more information or questions, contact:

Maria Monroe-DeVita or Lorna Moser, PhD, Director of the UNC ACT Technical Assistance Center in the UNC Department of Psychiatry’s Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health; and Coordinator of the North Carolina ACT Coalition.