Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 24 - Mental Health › Part 2 - Operational Standards for Mental Health, Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Community Service Providers › Chapter 32 - Intensive Community Supports for Serious Emotional Disturbance and Serious Mental Illness › Rule 24-2-32.4 - Program of Assertive Community Treatment's Contacts

Current through June 25, 2024
A. The Program of Assertive Community
				Treatment Team must have the capacity to provide multiple contacts during a
				week with people experiencing severe symptoms, trying a new medication,
				experiencing a health problem or serious life event, trying to go back to
				school or starting a new job, making changes in their living situation or
				employment, or having significant ongoing problems in daily living. These
				multiple contacts may be as frequent as two to three (2 - 3) times per day,
				seven (7) days per week and depend on individual need and a mutually agreed
				upon plan between people and agency provider employees. Many, if not all, team
				members must share responsibility for addressing the needs of all people
				requiring frequent contact.
B. The
				Program of Assertive Community Treatment Team must have the capacity to rapidly
				increase service intensity to a person when his or her status requires it or a
				person requests it.
C. The Program
				of Assertive Community Treatment Team must provide a mean (i.e., average) of at
				least three (3) contacts per week for all people.
D. Each new Program of Assertive Community
				Treatment Team must gradually build up its caseload with a maximum admission
				rate of five (5) people per month.
E. The Program of Assertive Community
				Treatment Team must be available to provide treatment, rehabilitation, and
				support activities seven (7) days per week. When a team does not have a
				sufficient number of members to operate two (2) eight (8) hour shifts weekdays
				and one (1) eight (8) hour shift weekend days and holidays, members are
				regularly scheduled to provide the necessary services on an
				individual-by-individual basis (per the person-centered comprehensive
				assessment and individualized Individual Service Plan) in the evenings and on
				weekends. This includes:
1. Regularly
				scheduling employees to cover individual contacts in the evenings and on
				weekends.
2. Regularly scheduling
				mental health professionals for on-call duty to provide crisis and other
				services the hours when team members are not working.
3. The team may arrange coverage through a
				reliable crisis intervention service. The team must communicate routinely with
				the crisis intervention service (i.e., at the beginning of the workday to
				obtain information from the previous evening and at the end of the workday to
				alert the crisis intervention service to people who may need assistance and to
				provide effective ways for helping them). The crisis intervention service
				should be expected to go out and see people who need face-to-face
				contact.
4. Regularly arranging for
				and providing psychiatric backup all hours the psychiatrist/psychiatric nurse
				practitioner is not regularly scheduled to work. If availability of the Program
				of Assertive Community Treatment psychiatrist/psychiatric nurse practitioner
				during all hours is not feasible, alternative psychiatric backup should be
				arranged (e.g., mental health center psychiatrist, emergency room
				psychiatrist).
5. If "3" or "4"
				occur, memoranda of agreement or formal contracts should be established and
				kept on file by the agency provider.