ABSTRACT

This chapter offers the reader an introduction to a particular type of community-orientated mental health service. This is a service model designed for people who experience considerable difficulty in tolerating or accepting care and treatment from a traditionally organized mental health service – that is, a service that has a tendency to be passive and expect people who use such services to be help-seeking. Assertive outreach is a service model and a way of thinking about, designing, organising and delivering community mental health services. Assertive outreach teams are multidisciplinary and sometimes multi-agency. The Flexible Assertive Community Treatment model, which originated in the Netherlands, integrates the supportive and coordinated elements of an assertive outreach approach within standard community mental health teams, providing two tiers of care. Core elements of the original assertive outreach approach – such as shared caseloads, whole-team working, daily meetings and planning – are protected.