FACT is a program supported by the public dollars that reduces hospitalization, homelessness, and criminal incarceration.  Services are delivered to help those with the most chronic mental illnesses (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other illnesses that cause pronounced disability) to live in the community. The program is an official, funded program in Florida and was approved by the 1999 Florida Legislature. 

FACT IS REHABILITATION & RECOVERY ORIENTED

FACT helps clients regain control of their lives and move ahead with their plans.  The FACT approach helps people live in regular housing, socialize in their community, and return to school or work.  FACT’s attention to basic needs (housing, medical care, income) enables consumers – even those with severe disabilities –to regain stability; assess their FACT is an effective, evidence-based, outreach oriented, service-delivery model for people will severe and persistent mental illnesses.  Using a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, team approach, FACT delivers comprehensive community treatment, rehabilitation and support services to its clients in their homes, at work and in community settings. 

FACT teams are coordinated combinations of psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, substance abuse treatment specialists, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and peer counselors.  The majority of FACT services are delivered where clients live, work, and spend their leisure time, not in the program office.  The team uses a positive, persistent, practical approach offering: (1) direct provision or coordination of all medical care, both psychiatric and general health care; (2) help on managing symptoms of the illness; (3) immediate crisis response; (4) the most effective and appropriate anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medications; (5) supportive therapy; and (6) practical on-site support in coping with life’s day-to-day demands including: (a) help obtaining financial entitlements and housing; (b) assistance with housing tasks so a person can live in regular housing alone or with a roommate; (c) help with learning how to socialize; (d) treatment for clients with co-existing substance abuse; (e) employment service and job placement; (f) assistance with legal issues; and (g) support, education, and skill-teaching for family members. 

FACT – COMPREHENSIVE CARE

Unlike traditional community services, FACT teams: (1) have one staff member for ever ten clients (a team consisting of ten can serve up to 100 clients) plus at least 16 hour a week of a psychiatrist’s time for every 50 clients, more in complex urban environments; (2) treat both psychiatric and substance abuse disorders at the same time; (3) take services to the client rather than requiring clients to come to the office; (4) provide team case-management – the person with a mental illness is a client of the team, not of an individual staff member – so continuity is maintained when staff leave the team; (5) help clients who have children to strengthen their parenting skills; (6) coordinate provisions of psychiatric care with general medical care and dental care; (7) continue to see a client who is in a hospital or jail, which often facilitates an earlier return to the community; (8) employ a psychiatrist who is a full team member participating in treatment – planning and teaching staff how to carry out treatment – not a consultant to the team; and (9) lessen the family’s burden of providing and coordinating care so a FACT client and his or her family can relate more easily as family members.  

FACT CLIENTS 

The FACT program successfully treats and rehabilitates: (1) people who don’t keep office appointments; (2) people with both severe psychiatric and substance abuse disorder; (3) people with intractable psychotic and affective symptoms; (4) people with socially disruptive behavior who are at high risk for arrest and incarceration; (5) people who are high users of emergency and inpatient hospital services; (6) people who cannot meet their own basic needs and are living in substandard housing situations or who are homeless; (7) people who are at risk of placement in state mental health hospitals. goals, and take steps toward recovery.