Assessment of assertive community treatment in the Bizkaia Mental Health Services/Evaluación del tratamiento asertivo comunitario en la Red de Salud Mental de Bizkaia

Introduction In recent decades, mental health services have improved with the development of healthcare models focused on community care, and balanced healthcare systems focused on the development of community services and the integration of hospital beds in general health facilities, such as general hospitals [1]. In Spain, ACT teams have been progressively implemented in several autonomous regions, led by the Asturias Mental Health Services more than 10 years ago. The so-called “Aviles model”, named after a town which has been a pioneer in the implementation of this type of service, has been recognised as an example of good practice in the Strategy for Mental Health of the Spanish National Health System. In the Bizkaia Mental Health Services (RSMB), ACT teams started to be deployed in 2008, initially in only one health region, but by 2011 they had been developed to cover the whole of Biscay.