Virginia Law

A. Individuals must meet the following admission criteria:

1. Diagnosis of a severe and persistent mental illness, predominantly schizophrenia, other psychotic disorder, or bipolar disorder that seriously impairs functioning in the community. Individuals with a sole diagnosis of a substance use disorder or developmental disability , personality disorder, traumatic brain injury, or an autism spectrum disorder are not the intended service recipients and should not be referred to ACT if they do not have a co-occurring psychiatric disorder.

2. Significant challenges to community integration without intensive community support including persistent or recurrent difficulty with one or more of the following:

a. Performing practical daily living tasks;

b. Maintaining employment at a self-sustaining level or consistently carrying out homemaker roles; or

c. Maintaining a safe living situation.

3. High service needs indicated due to one or more of the following:

a. Residence in a state hospital or other psychiatric hospital but clinically assessed to be able to live in a more independent situation if intensive services were provided or anticipated to require extended hospitalization, if more intensive services are not available;

b. Multiple admissions to or at least one recent long-term stay (30 days or more) in a state hospital or other acute psychiatric hospital inpatient setting within the past two years; or a recent history of more than four interventions by psychiatric emergency services per year;

c. Persistent or very recurrent severe major symptoms (e.g., affective, psychotic, suicidal);

d. Co-occurring substance addiction or abuse of significant duration (e.g., greater than six months);

e. High risk or a recent history (within the past six months) of criminal justice involvement (e.g., arrest or incarceration);

f. Ongoing difficulty meeting basic survival needs or residing in substandard housing, homeless, or at imminent risk of becoming homeless; or

g. Inability to consistently participate in traditional office-based services.

B. Individuals receiving ACT services should not be discharged for failure to comply with treatment plans or other expectations of the provider, except in certain circumstances as outlined. Individuals must meet at least one of the following criteria to be discharged:

1. Change in the individual's residence to a location out of the service area;

2. Incarceration of the individual for a period to exceed a year or long-term hospitalization (more than one year); however, the provider is expected to prioritize these individuals for ACT services upon the individual's anticipated return to the community if the individual wishes to return to services and the service level is appropriate to his needs;

3. The individual and, if appropriate, the legally responsible person, choose to withdraw from services and documented attempts by the program to re-engage the individual with the service have not been successful; or

4. The individual and team determine that ACT services are no longer needed based on the attainment of goals as identified in the person centered plan and a less intensive level of care would adequately address current goals.