A Resource Guide for State Officials: Implementing and Financing Assertive Community Treatment Programs

The Lewin Group prepared a field-tested and practice-proven Resource Guide for decision makers in state governments. It provides practical, experience-based information about strategies for implementing ACT programs to assist individuals who have severe and persistent mental illness. Additionally, the Resource Guide presents a broad overview of ACT program concepts and issues, including:

• Factors that help or hurt program implementation, such as financing structures, consumer issues, and common concerns
• A Budget Simulation Model that provides a cost forecasting method to enable states to project costs based on specific population and program design scenarios 
• A companion literature review offers detail regarding assertions about ACT model requirements, and about the evidence-base of research supporting the ACT program