What is assertive outreach?
Assertive outreach is a way of working intensively with people who have serious long-term mental health needs but who can’t or won’t engage with more mainstream mental health services. Most mental health services, including Together, now have some sort of assertive outreach team. The people who use assertive outreach teams’ support often have a history of erratic use of mental health services. They are likely to have had many unplanned psychiatric admissions to hospital. They may have a history of failure to take prescribed medication, which has resulted in them becoming unwell. They may have become involved with the police because of erratic behaviour. Assertive outreach teams support people in the community wherever those people feel most comfortable or least threatened – this may be in their own home, for example, or on the street, or in a café. Teams work only with a very small number of people. They aim to build an ongoing trusting relationship with their clients so that they can
