Vancouver ACT celebrates a year of success

Ask any member of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and they will tell you, no work day is ever the same. What remains the constant, though, is the importance that all team members place on helping people with chronic mental health and addiction challenges function independently in the community, with fewer police and hospital contacts.

Launched under the banner of Vancouver Community last January, ACT provides a wide variety of health care and life-skills supports to a current caseload of 76 clients, many of whom reside on the Downtown Eastside.

And on its one-year anniversary, the ACT Team’s single-minded focus is borne out by statistics that speak to its effectiveness.

• After nine months of regular interactions with the ACT team, client use of acute psychiatric beds dropped to one day, from a high of 69 days during first six months of ACT interventions.
• According to Vancouver Police Department statistics, law enforcement contact with the 14 most challenging ACT clients known to police has dropped by 40 per cent over the past year.

“These are impressive one-year results,” said George Scotton, Manager, Vancouver ACT. “The dedication of this team of health care professionals is unparalleled. They care for some of the most complex concurrent disorders clients in the province and do so with genuine compassion for all. Over the past year, it’s been an honour to watch them gel as a team and pave the way for some tangible client success stories.”

For Brendan Munden, the ACT team’s longest serving member, the program’s one-year anniversary is marked by a number of client successes. One, in particular, stands out for him. Here’s the story in Brendan’s own words:

“I’ve worked with a young man with a significant history of abuse and drug addiction, as well as being neglected by various systems. He has gone from self-harming behaviours to having a proper diagnosis, appropriate health care and hope for his own future.  He has just moved in to his own apartment; secured his own cable/internet/phone, and has plans for groceries and daily activities. This is a young man who bounced between foster homes in his youth, group homes, shelter beds and the street for the majority of his adult life.  We have watched and walked along with him as his sense of humour has emerged, his ability to negotiate for his own care as well as articulate his own hopes and dreams for the future as well as now.  Every individual who is struggling in the Downtown Eastside has the potential to be well and achieve success as they define it.”

Congratulations to ACT on a year’s worth of great work. We look forward to more success stories well into the future.