Columbus, OH — BREAD’s “Care, Not Crisis” campaign succeeded in getting the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health (ADAMH) Board to establish 3 new Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Teams and an allocation of $200,000 to have an accredited clubhouse program. At BREAD’s 2014 Nehemiah Action with 3,000 community members, we got a commitment from David Royer, CEO of the ADAMH Board, to create 1 new ACT team and to take steps to learn more about the clubhouse model.
There were entrenched interests in our mental health system, which is based primarily on providing medication and case management. When those don’t work, people with mental illness are led to believe that their situation is hopeless. The new ACT teams and the accredited clubhouse will fill this missing piece of the mental healthcare system. Both programs are SAMHSA best practices that are cost-effective and have been proven to reduce mental health crisis situations and improve the quality of life for people who live with severe mental illness. By August 2015, there were three new ACT teams in operation. We anticipate the clubhouse program will be accredited by spring 2016.
