Flexible Assertive Community Treatment in Rural and Remote Areas: A Qualitative Study of the Challenges and Adaptations of the Model

Background

Flexible assertive community treatment (FACT) is an innovative model for providing long-term treatment to people with severe mental illness. The model was developed in the Netherlands but is now used in other countries, including Norway, which has a geography different from the Netherlands, with many rural and remote areas. Implementation of innovations is context dependent. The FACT model's potential in rural and remote areas has not been studied. Therefore, we aimed to gain knowledge regarding the challenges and modifications of the model in rural and remote contexts and discuss how they can affect the model's potential in such areas. This knowledge can improve the understanding of how FACT or similar services can be adapted to function most optimally in such conditions. We sought to address the following questions: Which elements of the FACT model do team leaders of the rural FACT teams find particularly challenging due to the context, and what modifications have the teams made to the model?

Methods

Digital interviews were conducted with five team leaders from five rural FACT teams in different parts of Norway. They were selected using purposive sampling to include team leaders from some of the most rural teams in Norway. The interviews were analyzed using thematic text analysis.

Results

The following three themes described elements of the FACT model that were experienced particularly challenging in the rural and remote context: multidisciplinary shared caseload approach, intensive outreach and crisis management. The following eight themes described the modifications that the teams had made to the model: intermunicipal collaboration, context-adaptive planning, delegation of tasks to municipal services, part-time employment, different geographical locations of staff, use of digital tools, fewer FACT board meetings, and reduced caseload.

Conclusions

Rural and remote contexts challenge the FACT model's potential. However, modifications can be made, some of which can be considered innovative modifications that can increase the model's potential in such areas, while others might move the teams further away from the model.

Flexible assertive community treatment teams can change complex and fragmented service systems: experiences of service providers

BACKGROUND

Implementing innovative health service models in existing service systems is complicated and context dependent. Flexible assertive community treatment (FACT) is a multidisciplinary service model aimed at providing integrated care for people with severe mental illness. The model was developed in the Netherlands and is now used in several countries, such as Norway. The Norwegian service system is complex and fragmented, with challenges in collaboration. Limited research has been performed on FACT teams and other new integrative health service models as part of such systems. However, such knowledge is important for future adjustments of innovation processes and service systems. Our aim was to explore how FACT teams are integrated into the existing formal public service system, how they function and affect the system, and describe some influencing factors to this. We sought to address how service providers in the existing service system experience the functioning of FACT teams in the system.

METHODS

Five focus group interviews were undertaken 3 years after the FACT teams were implemented. Forty service providers representing different services from both levels of administration (primary and specialist healthcare) from different Norwegian regions participated in this study. Team leaders of the FACT teams also participated. Service providers were recruited through purposeful sampling. Interviews were analysed using thematic text analysis.

RESULTS

The analysis revealed five main themes regarding FACT teams: (1) They form a bridge between different services; (2) They collaborate with other services; (3) They undertake responsibility and reassure other services; (4) They do not close all gaps in service systems; and (5) They are part of a service system that hampers their functioning.

CONCLUSIONS

The FACT teams in this study contributed to positive changes in the existing service system. They largely contributed to less complex and fragmented systems by forming a bridge and undertaking responsibility in the system and by collaborating with and reassuring other services; this has reduced some gaps in the system. The way FACT teams function and needs of the existing system appear to have contributed positively to these findings. However, complexity and fragmentation of the system partly hamper functioning of the FACT teams.

Improved Rehabilitation Outcomes for Persons With and Without Problematic Substance Use After 2 Years With Assertive Community Treatment-A Prospective Study of Patients With Severe Mental Illness in 12 Norwegian ACT Teams

Background: Persons with severe mental illness often face difficulties in accessing and receiving adequate services enabling them to live independently. Many have co-occurring substance use problems that increase the risk of adverse outcomes. Community-based service models have been implemented around the world, including assertive community treatment (ACT), but the knowledge of rehabilitation outcomes in different subgroups is limited. We aimed to explore rehabilitation outcomes among patients suffering severe mental illness with and without substance use problems who had received ACT services for at least 2 years. Additionally, we compared differences in changes between the two groups. Methods: A total of 142 patients who received services for 2 years from the first 12 Norwegian ACT teams were included. Eighty-four (59%) had problematic substance use, while 58 (41%) did not. Data regarding housing, activity, symptoms, functioning, and subjective quality of life were collected upon enrollment into ACT and at 2 years of follow-up. Clinician-rated scales and self-report questionnaires were used. Changes within the two groups and differences in change between the groups were assessed using generalized linear mixed models. Results: Both groups were more likely to have good housing, higher level of functioning, and less anxiety and depressive symptoms after 2 years. The odds of good housing among participants with problematic substance use increased only after adjusting for age and gender. Participants with problematic substance use had less severe symptoms, particularly negative and manic symptoms, while participants without problematic substance use reported improved satisfaction with life in general. Neither group experienced a change in having a meaningful daily activity, positive symptoms, practical and social functioning, or subjective quality of life. The reduction of manic symptoms in the substance use group was the only difference between the groups. Conclusion: After 2 years, patients with and without problematic substance use experienced improvements in several important domains. Furthermore, the improvements were similar in both groups for most outcomes. This may suggest that ACT has a place in the continued effort toward integrated and comprehensive community services empowering patients with severe mental illness to achieve and sustain an independent life, including marginalized groups with severe substance use.

Model fidelity and team members' experiences of assertive community treatment in Norway: a sequential mixed-methods study

Background

Assertive community treatment (ACT) is an evidence-based treatment for people with severe mental illness, and this model is used widely throughout the world. Given the various adaptations in different contexts, we were interested in studying the implementation and adaptation of the ACT model in Norway. The first 12 Norwegian ACT teams were established between 2009 and 2011, and this study investigated the teams' model fidelity and the team members' experiences of working with ACT.

Methods

To investigate implementation of the ACT model, fidelity assessments were performed 12 and 30 months after the teams started their work using the Tool for Measurement of Assertive Community Treatment (TMACT). Means and standard deviations were used to describe the ACT teams' fidelity scores. Cohen's effect size d was used to assess the changes in TMACT scores from the first to second assessment. Qualitative focus group interviews were conducted in the 12 teams after 30 months to investigate the team members' experiences of working with the ACT model.

Results

The fidelity assessments of the Norwegian teams showed high implementation of the structural and organizational parts of the ACT model. The newer parts of the model, the recovery and evidence-based practices, were less implemented. Four of the six subscales in TMACT improved from the first to the second assessment. The team members experienced the ACT model to be a good service model for the target population: people with severe mental illness, significant functional impairment, and continuous high service needs. Team members perceived some parts of the model difficult to implement and that it was challenging to find effective ways to collaborate with existing health and social services.

Conclusion

The first 12 Norwegian ACT teams implemented the ACT model to a moderate degree. The ACT model could be implemented in Norway without extensive adaptations. Although the team members were satisfied with the ACT model, especially the results for their service users, inclusion of the ACT team to the existing service system was perceived as challenging.

Hospitalisation of severely mentally ill patients with and without problematic substance use before and during Assertive Community Treatment: an observational cohort study

BACKGROUND

Co-occurring substance use increases the risk of hospitalisation in people with severe mental illness, whereas Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) generally reduces hospitalisation in patients with severe mental illness and high inpatient service use. Because the superiority of ACT over standard services amongst patients with problematic substance use is uncertain, the present study examined inpatient service use amongst patients with and without problematic substance use in the 2 years before and the 2 years after they enrolled into ACT teams.

METHODS

This naturalistic observational study included 142 patients of 12 different ACT teams throughout Norway. The teams assessed the patients upon enrolment into ACT using clinician-rated and self-reported questionnaires. We obtained hospitalisation data from the Norwegian Patient Register for the 2 years before and the 2 years after enrolment into ACT. We used linear mixed models to assess changes in hospitalisation and to explore associations between problematic substance use and changes in hospitalisation, controlling for socio-demographic and clinical characteristics.

RESULTS

A total of 84 (59%) participants had problematic substance use upon enrolment into the ACT teams. In the 2 years after ACT enrolment both participants with and without problematic substance use experienced a reduction in total inpatient days. Those with problematic substance use also had fewer involuntary inpatient days. Exploratory analyses suggested that symptom severity and functioning level interacted with problematic substance use to influence change in total inpatient days.

CONCLUSION

These findings may suggest that ACT teams successfully support people with complex mental health problems in the community, including those with problematic substance use, and thereby contribute to a reduction in inpatient service use.

Hospitalization of high and low inpatient service users before and after enrollment into Assertive Community Treatment teams: a naturalistic observational study

Background

Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) is more successful in reducing hospitalization when baseline use is high. However, with a growing recovery-focus, ACT may be useful for people with severe mental illness who are difficult to engage but not high users of inpatient services. This study investigated hospitalization 2 years before and 2 years after ACT enrollment amongst patients both with and without high inpatient services use before enrollment into ACT.

Methods

This naturalistic observational study included 142 patients from 12 different ACT teams throughout Norway. Of these, 74 (52 %) were high users of inpatient services before ACT. The teams assessed the patients upon enrollment using clinician-rated and self-reported questionnaires. Hospitalization data from 2 years before and 2 years after enrollment into ACT were obtained from the Norwegian Patient Registry. Linear mixed models were used to assess changes in hospitalization and to explore associations between these changes and patient characteristics.

Results

When the participants enrolled into the ACT teams, high users of inpatient care were younger, more often living alone and more often subject to involuntary outpatient treatment than low users. The participants spent significantly fewer days in hospital during the 2 years of ACT follow-up compared to the 2 years before enrollment. The reduction was more evident amongst high users, whereas low users had an initial increase in inpatient days in the first year of ACT and a subsequent decrease in the second year. More severe negative symptoms and previous high use of inpatient care were associated with a reduction in both total and involuntary inpatient days. Additionally, a reduction in involuntary inpatient days was associated with being subject to involuntary outpatient treatment upon enrollment into ACT.

Conclusion

The findings in this study may suggest that ACT contributes to more appropriate use of inpatient care, possibly by reducing the presumably avoidable hospitalization of high users and increasing the presumably needed inpatient care of low users.

Associations Between Quality of Life and Functioning in an Assertive Community Treatment Population

OBJECTIVE

Level of functioning is positively associated with subjective quality of life for people with severe mental illness, but a detailed relationship between functioning and satisfaction with various life domains is largely unknown, and this gap prompted this study.

METHODS

Demographic and clinical data were obtained from 149 patients engaged with 12 assertive community treatment teams in Norway. Multivariate regression analyses were used to explore associations between subjective quality of life and patient characteristics.

RESULTS

Analyses confirmed positive associations between quality of life and age, functioning, and weekly contact with family and friends and a negative association with anxiety and depressive symptoms. Positive associations between several areas of practical and social functioning and satisfaction with related life domains also were found.

CONCLUSIONS

Although a causal direction of the associations between functioning and life satisfaction has not been determined in this study, the positive findings might indicate that programs aiming to improve functioning could affect patients' quality of life.

[Familial clustering of asbestos-related diseases]

This article describes the case histories of four individuals in the same family, all of whom developed asbestos-related disease. Special emphasis is placed upon the case of a woman, who after seemingly minimal exposure to asbestos, in the form of cleaning her husband's working clothes, developed a malignant mesothelioma. The incidence of asbestos-related disease has increased steadily over the past ten years. This probably reflects the extensive use of asbestos in Norway since World War II, and the long latency period of the disease. The authors recommend obtaining an in-depth history of exposure when asbestos-related disease is suspected.