Survey of consumer and non-consumer mental health service providers on assertive community treatment teams in Ontario.

Reflecting the increasing trend of consumers as providers in mental health services, the standards for Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams in Ontario, Canada require the hiring of at least 0.5 full-time equivalent consumer as a service provider. Through a mail-out survey, we explored how the consumer position has been integrated into these ACT teams. It was found that despite some variation in the roles and degree of integration of the consumers on these teams, consumers were generally well-incorporated team members with equal or better job satisfaction as compared to other employees.