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The Global Assertive Community Treatment Association (GACTA) Bulletins page provides up-to-date insights, resources, and guidance on assertive community treatment practices. 

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Expert Panel Discussion Series meetings are alternate first Thursday of every month at 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Eastern Time

March 5, 2026 Governing Council Meeting Agenda:

  • Spiritual Health Committee membership
  • GACTA Journal update
  • GACTA Virtual Symposium scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday April 28-29. Cost; $70 US, $95 Can, 60 Euros. Hold the date.
  • North American F/ACT conference to be held in Niagara Falls Nov 16-18, 2026 (live & virtual). Coordinator confirmed. Planning committee interest? Call for papers coming. GACTA content?

Sponsoring partners: GACTA, OAAF, New York, North Carolina, Cleveland, BC ACT, others?

  • Expert Panel Discussion Series Schedule
  • Membership report & survey
  • Committee reports
  • Other business

DECISION & ACTION items:

DECISIONS:

  • Spiritual Health Committee has been established
  • GACTA Expert Panel Discussion Series (open to all) will be held every second month, alternating with regular GACTA meetings.

The expert panels are constituted by whichever experts on this GACTA meeting mailing list choose to attend respective meetings.

Expert Panel Discussions will include AI capture and summaries posted to the GACTA website.

Topics:

1. Variables related to why people need ACT

2. Alternate models of ACT

               3. Housing support models

               4. Community Treatment Orders

               5. Payeeship issues

               6. Resource groups

               7. Money for medication adherence

               8. Authentic care model

               9. Team structure and composition

               10. Team supervision

               11. Involuntary care

               12. Leverage, coercion, persuasion

               13. Fairness and procedural justice

               14. Forced admissions and trauma/PTSD

               15. Fidelity

               16, Safety and dangerousness

               17. Forensic issues

               18. Expected outcomes of ACT (Team level, client level)

               19. ACT with limited resources/developing country challenges

               20. Mandatory addiction treatment

               21. Emergency protocols (hurricane, flooding,…)

22. Knowledge gaps and research directions – data needs

23. Spiritual care

24. Engagement and retention

25. Government planning and funding challenges

26. Peer Role & qualifications

27. AI and ACT

28. Other?

  • Planned General Membership Meetings to be supplanted by the bi-monthly Expert Panel discussions that will be open to all.
  • Forensic ACT or Forensic FACT teams should use the full word “Forensic” in their written and oral content to limit confusion with Flexible ACT teams – FACT

 

ACTION:

  • Establishment of GACTA Research Network to compare and contrast variables across countries for ACT use (“reveal the layer cakes of systems”):

inpatient stays, bed numbers, group homes, service integration, mental health funding, stigmatization/cultural realities, social service models (e.g. Trieste)

  • Update information on ACT protocols in Emergencies/Disasters: Lorna to prepare draft
  • GACTA Position Paper on forced addictions treatment: John to prepare draft with others
  • Develop GACTA “ACT  Model of Care” document (statement of established evidence, operating principles, key ingredients, essential fidelity elements, etc)
  • Develop GACTA branding and advertising (including standard conference/meeting introductory presentation).
  • Terms of use for the monitored GACTA open discussion forum to be developed (no job ads, no soliciting, etc…)

 

Topics to be addressed by Standing Committees:

  • Resource Group Implementation (Team Development Committee)
  • ACT, FACT, and Sub-population/Specialty Team Descriptions (Fidelity Committee)
  • Mandatory Addictions Treatment (Ethics Committee)
  • Partial Committal Orders (Community Treatment Orders) (Justice Involved Committee)

 

Decisions from previous meetings:

  • GACTA journal Editor-in-Chief now a member of the Governing Council
  • A GACTA bank account has been opened in Canada with two GACTA members as signatories (John Maher, Diane Versace)
  • Request a liability insurance quote for the GACTA journal (Sam).
  • The Governing Council officially began meeting on March 6, 2025. It is composed of Chairs of Standing Committees and a Family/Consumer rep: John, Nigel, Lorna, Maria, Jeremy, Juan, Rene, Helle, Luis, Stephanie
  • John Maher has been elected President for a two year term. Election of a Vice-President has been deferred.
  • Past Steering Committee members are welcome to join Governing Council meetings as Advisory Members.
  • The current Standing Committee structure will continue as is, with the clear understanding that committees will work collaboratively with each other as warranted.
  • Lorna sending GACTA discussion forum access info to the Steering Committee
  • A position for a family member/consumer was added to the Governing Council structure. Nigel Haggan from Canada has accepted this role.
  • Task Groups and Standing Committees will meet as determined by the respective Chairs.
  • The Standing Committee structure was streamlined and reduced from 11 to 6 committees. In addition, a new Task Group category was approved for other types of GACTA operational needs (see below).
  • A preliminary directory listing countries currently having ACT or FACT teams to be prepared (Niels, Helle).

 GACTA operational framework:

Level 1: General membership meetings occur 4 times a year via zoom starting in 2025 (General Assembly Meetings).

Level 2: Any member may volunteer to join a Standing Committee; acceptance will be subject to the needs of the committee and at the discretion of the Chair of the particular committee. Meeting frequency, terms of service, and maximum committee membership numbers are not specified and are at the discretion of the respective chairs. Client/family representation on each committee is important. (Chairs of the committees to be constituted in 2024 are to initially be drawn from the current interim Steering Committee. Chairs may subsequently be selected/endorsed by the Governing Council and can be drawn from anyone holding general membership who wishes to volunteer.)

Level 3: The Chairs of all Standing Committees shall as a group constitute the Governing Council. The Governing Council shall have authority to constitute or dissolve committees, create time-limited Ad-Hoc Committees, make decisions about day-to-day operational matters, determine operational directions and priorities, consult with the General Assembly and all committees, create expert advisory groups, and all other such matters as serve the goals of the association.

  • At the outset of the Governing Council’s operations it will elect a President for a two year term with an optional additional two year term as Past-President. The Governing Council will also elect a Vice-President for a two year term who shall then subsequently serve as President for 2 years and then (optionally) as Past-President for 2 years.
  • A closed version of the website will be reviewed by the GACTA Steering Committee before a public launch. “GACTA.net” has been secured as a domain name.
  • A searchable directory of teams around the world is going to be incorporated into the GACTA website.
  • Membership registration will be required to participate in an open topic discussion board; it was agreed that monitoring of the board exchanges and content is necessary to ensure respectful exchanges and limit misinformation. Lorna Moser has a colleague who has kindly agreed to provide monitoring of our website discussion board. A monitoring committee will assist as needed: Lorna, Koen, Claudia, John
  • Membership registration (free) will also be required to access e-learning modules but not other general information content.

Deferred for future discussion:

  • Revisit possibility of including other types of community mental health teams in GACTA membership for third world countries that do not currently have ACT or FACT service structures or the resources to support fidelity-based teams.

BACKGROUND:

  1. Interim Steering Committee:

Started meeting monthly in 2023. To be dissolved when supplanted by the Governing Council (2025)

  1. GACTA Purposes: 
  • Promotion of evidence-based ACT and FACT services around the world
  • Resource assistance for team development
  • Foster access to quality educational materials and opportunities
  • Development and dissemination of international standards
  • Facilitate research linkage
  • Support knowledge translation
  • Advocacy

Formal announcement of GACTA to the world will occur after the website is operational. Website planning still underway in association with OAAF.

  1. Categories of General Membership: 
  • Individual person
  • Individual ACT or FACT Team
  • Regional Association (e.g. Province of Ontario)
  • National Association (e.g. Canada)
  • International Association (e.g. EAOF)
  • Mental Health Association (e.g. Canadian Mental Health Association)
  • Government Agency
  • Peer or Family Association
  • Research Institution or Group

General membership (at present) will not be expanded to include community mental health teams or services that are not operating according to ACT or FACT standards/principles.

  1. Membership Costs: free 
  1. Conferences: 

GACTA will hold a half-day convention in conjunction with annual ACT conferences that alternate between Europe and North America.

Conferences will have virtual and in-person options. 

  • 2026 Canada or USA
  • 2027 Rotterdam EAOF
  • 2028 Canada or USA
  • 2029 Europe EAOF
  1. GACTA Website: 
  • Purposes
  • Membership list and info distribution options
  • Journal  
  • Info Bulletins
  • Links to regional and country websites
  • Links to educational resources and learning modules
  • Conference info
  • Community of Practice connections
  • Discussion Board
  • Information Clearing House

 

  1. Incorporation:
  • GACTA will not incorporate. A lawyer vetted disclaimer will appear on the website and anyone entering the website must accept before entering.

 

  1. Virtual learning modules:

 Virtual learning modules for the GACTA website will be developed in 3 ways: 

·        using speaker content from GACTA initiatives

·        from recorded speaker sessions provided to GACTA from ACT conferences speakers’ sessions

·        from relevant recorded sessions provided by an educational organization or ACT organization

·        Sessions will be uploaded for free worldwide access if there is no self-assessment component developed by GACTA for the session. If GACTA develops a self-assessment component for a session (for CME purposes), that session may be offered on the website for a modest fee with any profits split 50-50 between GACTA and the organization that provided the content. Copyright shall remain with the content provider who agrees to licence distribution by GACTA.

  1. Task Groups

          i)                 Membership Team (vetting, directory)

ii)               Journal Editorial Board

iii)              E-learning module development

  1. Standing Committees

i)                 Fidelity (Model International Standard or compilation/analysis of existing standards)

               ii)         Communications (discussion board, bulletins, messaging, information clearing house)

               iii)        Team Development (communities of practice, roles, disciplines, training, education, conferences)

               iv)        Research & Policy (economics, advocacy, outcome data, partnerships, standardized data collection)

               v)         Ethics

vi)        Justice Involved 

               vi)          Spiritual Health