“One-Stop Shop for Clients with Serious Mental Illness Who Often Use Substances”: A Qualitative Study on Assertive Community Treatment Clinicians’ Perspectives on Managing Substance Use Disorder

Assertive community treatment (ACT) can be an integrated treatment model for peoples with serious mental illness (SMI), many of whom have co-occurring substance use disorder (SUD). With its capacity to provide integrated care, ACT presents opportunities for the effective management of both mental illness and addiction. This study aimed to explore the role of ACT in managing concurrent disorders (CD), specifically focusing on the barriers and facilitators in treating SUD among peoples with SMI, as perceived by ACT clinicians. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five ACT clinicians, from which five overarching themes and the 28 sub-themes were identified through thematic analysis. These established the role of ACT in managing CD, and identified systemic, clinician, and client-related barriers and facilitators in the management of SUD. The findings highlight the potential for integrating mental health and addiction services more effectively within ACT by addressing these barriers and enhancing the management of CD.