This month's national ACT Team meeting topic is Establishing a Digital Crisis Plan and Psychiatric Advance Directive with Amy N. Cohen, PhD, Associate Director; Implementation Scientist and SMI Psychological Treatment Expert, American Psychiatric Association, and Zhuoyin Yang, American Psychiatric Association, Project Manager, SMI Adviser. The app "My Mental Health Crisis Plan" will be featured in the March 1 National ACT Team Meeting. The app offers an easy way for individuals to create and share a psychiatric advance directive (PAD). Prior to the January 4 national ACT team meeting, we suggest downloading the app and trying it out— no information is stored outside the app. Try creating a PAD for a character in popular media (e.g., Darth Vader). This will allow the presenters to go beyond an introduction but also answer questions and troubleshoot with you. Get the app in the Apple App Store and at Google Play. These videos are recommended viewing before the presentation:
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.