This month's national ACT Team meeting topic is COVID-19 and Substance Abuse: Providing Support During and After the Pandemic by Richard Kruszynski, MSSA, LISW, LICDC, Director Center for Evidence Based Practices, Case Western Reserve. The presence of the coronavirus in our communities has had sweeping implications for the individuals we serve and for how to best serve them. Our discussion will both revisit the foundational considerations of best practices for the provision of support as well as explore emerging trends and themes with respect to substance use and abuse.
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. 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. Learn more about the meetings here.
Goals of the meetings are to:
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.
