Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/extended-interview-mental-health-expert-explains-assertive-community-treatment Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Psychiatrist Dr. Robert Weisman is the director of Project Link at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Project Link is a collaboration between the university and local community service agencies that aims to provide health care for people with serious mental illnesses who end up in the criminal justice system. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. SUSAN DENTZER: Let's start off by talking about assertive community treatment. What is it? ROBERT WEISMAN: Assertive community treatment is taking the mental health care to the individual that we're serving. This differs from traditional care where someone would come in and receive their care in a clinic. They would come, see a doctor, a nurse, a therapist, get their medication, go to a group. But there are a group of individuals that don't access that care, and for those individuals, assertive community treatment provides that necessary outreach so that they can get the treatment they need. SUSAN DENTZER: And when we say forensic assertive community treatment, what are we talking about? ROBERT WEISMAN: It's also an outreach program, but it differs from traditional assertive community treatment in that we integrate or collaborate with the criminal justice system, whether that's parole, probation, mandated care, or the court system. We communicate, collaborate for the care of the individual in the community. SUSAN DENTZER: Let's talk about why that's necessary. In the big picture sense, what happens to people who are mentally ill that often entangles them in the criminal justice system? ROBERT WEISMAN: By the nature of certain severe mental illnesses, let's say schizophrenia, someone may lack the insight or the appreciation, or deny their illness and not show up to treatment. And what happens is they may be out in the streets not taking their treatment, getting involved with drugs and alcohol, and as a result what can happen is they may end up in petty crimes, or maybe even more serious crimes. They end up in the wrong place. Rather than receiving treatment, they get locked up.Now, there are a certain portion of individuals that need that intensive care, and that's what our program, Project Link, or that forensic assertive community treatment model does.Project Link works with the criminal justice system, if you will, the three C's. We're the clinical care that works in collaboration with the criminal justice system, to help the client and the family to survive in the community.