Assertive outreach
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Assertive outreach

Smythy Thiru Community Psychiatric Nurse/Co-ordinator, AOT, Assertive Outreach Team, Learning Difficulties Services, City and Hackney Primary Care NHS Trust, London
Phil Hayton Psychology is Psychologist, Assertive Outreach Team, Learning Difficulties Services, City and Hackney Primary Care NHS Trust, London
Emma Stevens Senior Occupational Therapist, Assertive Outreach Team, Learning Difficulties Services, City and Hackney Primary Care NHS Trust, London

The City and Hackney Community Learning Difficulties Service offers a unique, joint-financed, statutory assertive outreach team for people with a learning disability and additional complex mental health and social care needs. Smythy Thiru, Philip Hayton and Emma Stevens describe how the team operates

The National Service Framework for Mental Health (DoH 1999a) and NHS Plan (DoH 2000) initiatives called for a total of 220 assertive outreach teams to be operational in the UK by April 2003. Assertive outreach is considered to be one of the best-researched models of community mental healthcare, providing a clinically effective approach for people who have severe and enduring mental disorders (Marshall and Lockwood 2001). The model is expected to become a central part of NHS community healthcare provision. The three strategic objectives for assertive outreach are to:

Learning Disability Practice. 5, 9, 10-13. doi: 10.7748/ldp2002.11.5.9.10.c1498

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