Proposed Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) in Alaska
by Jim Gottstein

The State is proposing a PACT program because the community services the State promised with the API 2000 down sizing is not going to come on line.   PACT is a very intensive team-based approach that is designed to eliminate hospitalizations by ensuring that the patient follows the prescribed treatment plan by constant monitoring and intervention.  With the prospective downsizing of Alaska Psychiatric Institute to fewer beds than the number of patients it has ever had (well maybe they have had fewer patients for 2 days in the last 35 years) and existing community services clearly not able to keep enough people out of the hospital to get to the lower census number API will have to meet, a push is on to bring PACT to Anchorage.  

Nationally, I think it is fair to say that family members of people with psychiatric disabilities (sometimes called "indirect consumers" or even "consumers") and mental health workers are in favor of the PACT approach while the direct (or "primary") consumer organizations (ie., those that suffer psychiatric disabilities as distinct from family members) are against it.

Direct (or "primary") consumer organizations have lined up against PACT because it greatly expands forced treatment beyond the traditional civil commitment standards of being a danger to oneself or others.  See, 

• PACT information at MindFreedom.org and Is Your State a Double Whammy?   
• Stop Coercion and PACT/ACT Perversion Now.
• Alternative to PACT: Recovery at Your PACE

Two recent  academic studies on the problems with PACT are:

• Programs of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT): A critical review. By Tomi Gomory, Ph.D. 
• The Trouble with Pact:  Questioning the Increasing Use of Assertive Community Treatment Teams in Community Mental Health, by Patricia Spindel and Jo Anne Nugent.

NAMI Alaska is holding a API Community Project Meeting October 13th at its Anchorage Offices. See also,

• Consumer Letter
• Incomplete Discussion Draft for Proposed Anchorage PACT Program.
• Proposal to Add PACT to Anchorage’s Community Mental Health Services System
• Anchorage PACT Budget Estimates

The Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web is also having a briefing on the proposal to implement a PACT program in Anchorage at at its Computer Connection, 619 East Fifth Avenue, Suite 212, October 17th at 1:00 pm.

For more information on forced treatment, see, 

• If It Isn't Voluntary It Isn't Treatment 
• Forced Treatment Doesn't Work The promise of community mental health service was neither funded nor fulfilled. 

Information in favor of the PACT program can be found at NAMI's Website.

Back to Alaska Mental Health Consumer Web.

Last modified 10/3/2000