D16 - Exploring a County's Integration of Assertive Community Treatment and Assisted Outpatient Treatment

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM MDT

Location: 505

Unrestricted Education Sponsor

Learn how Bernalillo County, New Mexico is transforming its behavioral health system by combining Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) with Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT). This session will show how intensive, field-based ACT services and judicially supported AOT orders work together to reduce hospitalizations, incarceration, and homelessness while promoting recovery and protecting rights. Attendees will gain practical insights into building partnerships with courts, crisis teams, and housing providers, as well as strategies for funding and sustaining high-fidelity ACT. Walk away with a replicable blueprint to strengthen engagement, outcomes, and equity in your own community.

Learning Objectives:

participants will be able to describe how Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) complement one another to reduce hospitalizations, incarceration, and homelessness while supporting recovery.
Identify key implementation strategies—including staffing, fidelity standards, court partnerships, and funding pathways—that are essential for building a sustainable ACT–AOT program.
participants will be able to apply lessons from Bernalillo County’s case study to design or strengthen ACT–AOT collaborations in their own communities, with attention to equity, rights, and outcomes measurement.

Disclosure(s):

Breeann Rocha, LCSW: No financial relationships to disclose

Phebe Bell, MSW: No financial relationships to disclose

Breakout Presenter(s)

Breeann Rocha, LCSW

Director of Assertive Community Treatment Programs
New Mexico Solutions
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

Slides
Phebe Bell, MSW

Senior Director of Housing Solutions
California Mental Health Services Authority
sacramento, California

Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

Slides
TS

Taylor Sabol, MPH

Policy Specialist
National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Washington, District of Columbia

Disclosure information not submitted.