Well, it's the only evidence-based community treatment for people with the most severe forms of mental and substance use disorders. It has been studied for decades. The continuum of care of assertive community treatment teams and their variation, flexible assertive community treatment teams, has proven to reduce unnecessary in-patient treatment, to reduce ED visits, and to improve the interactions between patients and their families, as well as their housing situation. They are, for sure, an evidence-based approach to this problem.
In fact, I am a psychiatrist in one of those teams in B.C., and I'm the medical lead for the provincial assertive community treatment and advanced practice initiative. We have evaluated this, and we have proven that it reduces by half the days of inpatient treatment compared to the year before admission, and then continues to reduce these up to two-thirds, meaning that we only have one-third of the days of in-patient treatment in five years. The same thing happens with ED visits. The reason for that is that you have a wraparound team that seeks out the patient where they're at and makes a decision in the moment. Do they need to be admitted? Do they need to be discharged? Do they need to be under the Mental Health Act or extended leave, or can they be decertified?
Yes, it is an evidence-based and also cost beneficial approach. We have proven that for every dollar invested in five years, we get $2.20 back. The government saves money through this. There are 34 of those teams in B.C. They are being expanded, and we need to do more; however, that is certainly one of the evidence-based tools we need to rely on.