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THE
HOSPITAL WITHOUT WALLS
PACT
(Program for Assertive Community Treatment) is a treatment
model that provides comprehensive, locally based treatment
to people with serious and chronic mental illnesses.
PACT is, in essence, a hospital without walls. PACT recipients
receive the around-the-clock staffing of a psychiatric unit,
but within the comfort of their own community. PACT members
are trained in the areas of psychiatry, social work, nursing,
and vocational rehabilitation. The PACT team provides these
necessary services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365
days a year.
WHO
ARE THE RECIPIENTS OF PACT?
The
PACT model is for adults who have a severe and persistent
mental illness. PACT participants usually are people with
schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, or who experience
significant disability from other mental illnesses and are
not helped by traditional outpatient models. PACT helps those
who traditionally have been the hardest to serve and who may
otherwise end up falling through the cracks.
25
YEARS OF DOCUMENTED SUCCESS
- PACT clients spend significantly less time in hospitals
and more time in independent living situations; have less
time unemployed; earn more income from competitive employment;
experience more positive social relationships; express greater
satisfaction with life; and are less symptomatic.
- In one study, only 18 percent of PACT clients were hospitalized
the first year compared to 89 percent of the non-PACT treatment
group. For those PACT clients that were rehospitalized, stays
were significantly shorter than stays of the non-PACT group.
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The PACT model has shown a small economic advantage over institutional
care. However, this finding does not factor in the significant
societal costs arising from lack of access to adequate treatment
(e.g. hospitalizations, suicide, unemployment, incarceration,
homelessness, etc).
NEW
YORK NEEDS PACT
We urge the New York State Legislature to continue its appropriations
of budget funds this year and in future years for the implementation
of PACT teams. Only six states currently have statewide PACT
programs: Delaware, Idaho, Michigan, Rhode Island, Texas and
Wisconsin. New York needs to join this vanguard of leaders.
Despite
documented success, only a fraction of those with the greatest
needs have access to this uniquely effective program. In the
United States, adults with severe and persistent mental illness
constitute one-half to one percent of the adult population
with mental illness. It is estimated that the PACT model could
help 20 percent to 40 percent of this group if it were available.
MORE
ABOUT PACT >>
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