Predictors of Clinical Outcome of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) in a Rural Area in Denmark: An Observational Study with a Two-Year Follow-Up

Abstract

Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is a multidisciplinary team approach to community care treatment, mainly characterised by small caseload and individualised care. The aim of the present study was to identify predictors of clinical outcome in ACT using an observational design. Three ACT Teams were established in The North Denmark Region to treat patients with severe mental illness. The patients were identified and followed in regional and national psychiatric registers, and in social and somatic case registers, 2 years before and 2 years after inclusion. The results showed that the use of psychiatric hospital services decreased significantly for the 240 included patients. Furthermore, the psychopharmacological profile was improved. No significant change occurred in the consumption of the somatic hospitals. Clinical outcome, defined as halving of admissions or bed days, was in a logistic analysis predicted by the patient's psychiatric use of inpatient service prior to inclusion in an ACT Team.

Clinically useful predictors for premature mortality among psychiatric patients visiting a psychiatric emergency room

“…Severe mental illness (SMI) is an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) target group (Aagaard & Kølbæk, 2015; Aagaard & Muller-Nielsen, 2011) defined as follows: during the last 2 years having had as primary diagnosis ICD-10: F20, F22, F25 or F30–31; at least four admissions or 50 inpatient days; or secondary diagnosis within ICD-10: F10–19.9 or Z04.6.…”

Assertive community treatment (ACT) case managers’ professional identities: A focus group study

“…Data used in the current analysis were gathered as part of a larger study evaluating the effects of the establishment of these teams (Aagaard & Kølbaek 2015;Aagaard et al 2014).…”