How do people who receive assertive community treatment experience this service?

Using a participatory research approach this study examined Assertive Community Treatment as experienced by service recipients. Overall participants were positive about their involvement with ACT and their experiences reflected critical ingredients of the model. The analysis revealed seven ways the ACT promoted community adjustment. Unhelpful aspects of the experience included staff requiring more training in particular service areas, conflicts over money and medications, stigmatizing aspects of the service, and authoritative practices of individual staff. Services promoting community participation were less well-developed than clinical approaches. Tensions inherent in receiving ACT services were related to the participants' negotiation of personal and social consequences of mental illness while striving for autonomy, community participation and inclusion.