The response of an assertive community treatment program following a natural disaster

A newly forming model treatment program for seriously mentally ill adults was dramatically affected by a natural disaster in September 1989. Hurricane Hugo rendered the offices of the Assertive Community Treatment Program uninhabitable, its vehicles marginally driveable, and its resources virtually...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Community mental health journal 1994-10, Vol.30 (5), p.505-515
Main Authors: LACHANCE, K. R, SANTOS, A. B, BURNS, B. J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Combined Modality Therapy
Community based treatment
Community Mental Health Centers
Community Mental Health Services
Disasters
Female
Humans
Hurricanes
Male
Medical sciences
Mental disorders
Mental health
Middle Aged
Natural Disasters
Organization of mental health. Health systems
Organizational Behavior
Patient Care Team
Patient Education as Topic
Patient Readmission
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychotic Disorders - psychology
Psychotic Disorders - rehabilitation
Relief Work
Responses
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
Social Response
Social services
South Carolina
Survivors
Treatment Programs
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Summary:A newly forming model treatment program for seriously mentally ill adults was dramatically affected by a natural disaster in September 1989. Hurricane Hugo rendered the offices of the Assertive Community Treatment Program uninhabitable, its vehicles marginally driveable, and its resources virtually nonexistent. In the three months following the storm, however, not a single psychiatric rehospitalization took place. Although the authors cannot claim that the program model was solely responsible for this outcome, this paper illustrates the service system elements that contributed to the program's effectiveness in the wake of one of the nation's most severe natural disasters.
ISSN:0010-3853
1573-2789
DOI:10.1007/BF02189066