Flexible assertive community treatment (FACT) as part of a community (health) network

BACKGROUND: Community-based care for people with severe mental illness increasingly requires far-reaching cooperation between different domains. This cooperation must always be unique and local, and at the same time provide an answer to generic and nationally set goals. AIM: Offering new insights on collaboration within and between domains. METHOD: Reflection on developments in the social domain and specialist mental healthcare using relevant literature and recent (inter)national experiences. RESULTS: It seems possible to provide better integral care by allowing FACT-teams to network together with Social Support partners (e.g. by sharing financial and/or human resources). In this process, networks of care for people with serious mental illness (SMI), develop over various phases and realize new partnerships. The model fidelity scale for FACT-teams was adjusted to facilitate that process. CONCLUSIONS The new FACT model fidelity scale is ready to allow FACT-teams to explore flexible local solutions for partnerships to realize the much-needed multi-domain integrated community care for people with SMI.