ASSERTIVE COMMUNITY TREATMENT

The Westside Assertive Community Treatment Program (ACT) provides intensive case management to a minimum of 100 clients referred by the Community Behavioral Health Services who traditionally might be served in acute settings such as psychiatric hospitals or locked facilities.  The program originated as a pilot program designed to meet the needs of severely mentally ill (SMI) individuals in San Francisco requiring a high level of services during a 12 month period.  The goal of the program is to stabilize these individuals and to improve their quality of life using cost-efficient treatment and coaching. 

SERVICES

ACT Case Managers are responsible for the stabilization of many areas of the client’s life.  Westside provides crisis, urgent care, individual or group structured activities, improving client socialization skills through a variety of activities. The importance of employment is often not stressed with the severely and persistently mental ill. The therapeutic value of working or having productive use of time is an integral part of community integration. ACT promotes individual member training programs for real-life work experiences which are necessary to solve problems and survive in a work environment. Learning new responsible coping skills are also encouraged by Case Managers; these include:  housekeeping, personal hygiene, money management, transportation, shopping, social camaraderie, and medication adherence.

STAFF

The ACT Staff is comprised of a broad set of multicultural and multidisciplinary professionals.  The staff includes:  

  • Psychiatrist
  • Master Prepared Case Managers
  • Vocational Specialist
  • License Vocational Nurse (LVN)


This multidisciplinary team meets three mornings every week to discuss their clients’ symptoms and needs as well as to assign tasks to each Case Manager. Team members participate in regular case conferences to provide the most effective integrated client service. ACT provides evening and weekend services by employing Alameda Crisis Support phone services and having an on-call Case Manager on a rotating basis.

REQUIREMENTS

To receive treatment, a client must:

  • Be 18 years or older
  • Designated as a high utilization user of services in the past 12 months
  • Be preauthorized for SPR (single point of response) services and referred by Community Behavioral Health Services (CBHS)

REFERRALS

Referrals can be made Monday through Friday between 9:00am and 5:00pm by calling SFDPH Central Access.

 

Hours
Monday - Friday: 8:00am – 2:00pm
Email Address
act@westside-health.org