In contrast, the PACT multidisciplinary staff work as a team. The PACT team works collaboratively to deliver the majority of treatment, rehabilitation, and support services required by each client to live in the community. A psychiatrist is a member of, not a consultant to, the team. The consumer is a client of the team, not of an individual staff member. Individuals with the most severe mental illnesses are typically not served well by the traditional outpatient model that directs patients to various services that they then must navigate on their own.
PACT goes to the consumer whenever and wherever needed.
The consumer is not required to adapt to or follow prescriptive rules of a treatment program. PACT clients spend significantly less time in hospitals and more time in independent living situations, have less time unemployed, earn more income from competitive employment, experience more positive social relationships, express greater satisfaction with life, and are less symptomatic. In one study, only 18 percent of PACT clients were hospitalized the first year compared to 89 percent of the non-PACT treatment group. For those PACT clients that were rehospitalized, stays were significantly shorter than stays of the non-PACT group. PACT clients also spend more time in the community, resulting in less burden on family.