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For Immediate Release
October 13, 2022
Contact: Elizabeth Goodsitt/Jennifer Miller 608-266-1683
Program of Assertive Community Treatment Marks 50 Years of Helping People with Mental Health Challenges
Model of care enables people to thrive where they live, work, and play
Fifty years have passed since a team of clinicians at today?s Mendota Mental Health Institute on Madison?s north side opened the?Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT)?in a house in downtown Madison, marking? the beginning of the world?s first community-based mental health treatment service. This work revolutionized approaches to care and supports for people with mental health challenges in Wisconsin and beyond. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) recognized this impact today, with an opportunity for people to visit with PACT staff and clients to learn about the evolution of PACT from a research project to one of the most effective approaches in community mental health care.? From its modest beginnings in Madison in 1972, PACT?s model of care has been adopted across Wisconsin through Community Support Programs and has also been adopted in 41 states, and in 10 countries.
?We have much to celebrate today,? DHS Secretary-designee Karen Timberlake said at an event held at Mendota Mental Health Institute. ?We are proud of the DHS staff, past and present, who have developed and refined a model of treatment that has offered hope, health, and healing to thousands of people here and around the world. They are innovators with the courage to do things differently when the status quo isn?t working. We also are proud of the accomplishments of PACT clients, past and present, who have allowed our teams to walk alongside them in their recovery journey. They?ve shown clinicians that, with the right care and supports at the right time, people living with a mental health challenge can transform their lives in meaningful ways. That?s the power of the PACT model. It helps the client dream about what they want to do and then implements a plan to get to that spot. Thanks to PACT, treating people with mental health challenges in their community is the norm today with a broad range of programs.?
View the entire news release.
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