User Interviews User-evaluation of ACT – An evaluation of Users experiences with ACT-teams

ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) is an approach for community mental health service delivery that consists of ambulant, interdisciplinary team that emphasizes home visits and out of office treatment. ACT-teams are for people with severe mental illnesses. The goal with this project was to map patients’ experiences with ACT-teams in Norway, the  ACT-team patients recovery process and relations to the employees of ACT-teams.

The project was part of a research based evaluation of ACT-teams in Norway, and this evaluation was done in collaboration with National centre for knowledge through experience in mental health, Akershus University Hospital and FOU Psykisk Helsevern. Together with partners in the project, KBTs Heidi Westerlund and Dagfinn Bjørgen conducted semi structured interviews after the User Interviews User-model with patients that had been in contact with the teams for two years. The interviews were carried out in 2012-2013, and a total of 76 patients were interviewed. The patients were asked about their experiences with the services, their recovery processes, important relations and importants events throughout their treatment.

The results from the evaluation shows that the patients were very satisfied with the treatment. The holistic, out of office way of working was recognized as important, and many patients had good relations to the teams. The patients also described a positive view on their own recovery process.

Authors:
Kristin Sverdvik Heiervang
Heidi Westerlund
Dagfinn Bjørgen
Ann-Mari Lofthus
Arnhild Lauveng
Torleif Ruud

Report in Norwegian:

Bruker Spør Bruker om ACT – En undersøkelse om brukeres erfaringer med tilbudet fra ACT-team (2014)