LAUSR

Assertive community treatment (ACT) started when a group of mental health professionals at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Wisconsin—Arnold Marx, M.D., Leonard Stein, M.D., and Mary Ann Test, Ph.D.—recognized that many people with severe mental illnesses were being discharged from inpatient care in stable condition only to be readmitted relatively soon thereafter. This group looked at how the mental health system worked and tried to figure out what could be done so that individuals with severe mental illness could remain in the community and have a life that was not driven by their illness.