Introduction

Health Care For Homeless Veterans

Florida Assertive Community Treatment

Helping Hands Clinic

Veterans Video Network

Mental Health Intensive Case Management

Crisis Intervention Team

Assisted Living Facilities

National Alliance On Mental Illnesses

Alachua County Survivors Of Suicide and Alachua County Crisis Center

Mental Health Court

Acknowledgements

Florida Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) is an effective, evidenced based, outreach-oriented, service-delivery model for people with severe and persistent mental illness. FACT is based on the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model that started in Wisconsin in 1972. The focus is rehabilitation. The FACT approach helps people live in regular housing, socialize in the community, and return to school or work. By addressing basic needs (housing, medical care, income) the client is able to take steps toward recovery. The team includes psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, therapists, substance abuse treatment specialists, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and peer counselors. Services are delivered where the client lives, not in the team office. Some of the services provided include: help in managing symptoms, immediate crisis response twenty-four hours/seven days a week, medications, supportive therapy, assistance with activities of daily living, help with learning how to socialize, treatment for substance abuse and support and education for family members.

Currently, there are thirty-two FACT teams located in several counties throughout Florida. Each team has the capacity to serve one-hundred persons eighteen years of age and older. Priority for enrollment is given to patients with mental illness causing severe impairment in daily living. Fifty percent of persons admitted must be discharged from a state hospital; sixty percent of persons admitted must be eligible for Medicaid. The results are greater strides toward recovery and a better quality of life, fewer dropouts, fewer re-hospitalizations, diversion from jails and decreased burden on families. The progress made during inpatient admissions is often lost when patients leave the hospital; FACT is an effective way to break this cycle.

The main office for the Alachua County FACT team is in Gainesville, FL.
For more information contact Trish Sokol, EDS, LMH, Program Manager 352-271-8605.