Any staff position on a PACT team can be held by a qualified person who is recovering from a severe mental illness. Many consumers find employment on an assertive community treatment team to be satisfying work. Unfortunately, there are programs that call themselves programs of assertive community treatment that do not live up to the real PACT model. They may lack the weekend and evening operations, and crisis services that the PACT Standards require. No, PACT provides much more than medical care.
PACT helps people get and keep employment or further education, make friends and enjoy leisure time.
The PACT team helps with independent housing and with entitlements, such as Social Security, Medicaid, and Section 8 rental assistance. The PACT staff does directly provide psychiatric and substance abuse care and coordinates with medical care providers. Most people with severe and persistent mental illnesses do not need as much help as PACT offers. PACT consumers have choices, including choice about taking medications. If a person does not want to take medication they are not discharged or abandoned.