Child-Focused Assertive Community Treatment Teams (ACTT)
What is Child ACTT?
Child ACTT is a unique, technology-based, family-focused, and fully multidisciplinary service dedicated to helping children ages 12–18 who are at risk of residential placement or hospitalization. This highly individualized program integrates face-to-face, virtual, and technology-enhanced services to meet the daily needs of each client at home and in their community, ensuring comprehensive and compassionate care tailored to every child and family.
How Does It Work?
Treatment occurs multiple times a week in-person and virtually depending on the client and family’s needs and preferences. Services are provided by a multidisciplinary team. Treatment includes 24/7 crisis response, evidence-based therapy, data-informed planning, professional parenting, respite care, medication management, wellness coaching, therapy, care coordination, safety planning
If you have any immediate questions, please email us at ACTTPrgrmAssts@childrenshopealliance.org.
Program Highlights
Overview and Accessibility
Child ACTT serves youth and families in Alamance, Burke, Catawba, Durham, Gaston, Iredell, Mecklenburg, Orange, and Wake counties. The care team is available 24/7 throughout treatment, providing consistent support for both urgent and ongoing needs.
Technology and Family Support
Families in Child ACTT receive smartphones to support telehealth, mood tracking, treatment apps, and secure communication with the care team. Usage is monitored for safety. The program also connects families to vital resources like food, housing, utilities, and clothing to support overall well-being.
Program Timeline and Structure
The program runs for about six months, aiming to stabilize the home and prevent residential placement or hospitalization. A multidisciplinary team, including a psychiatric nurse practitioner, nurse, therapist, behavior specialist, respite provider, and others, visits families multiple times a week. Services are flexible and tailored to each family’s changing needs.
Meet Isabella
At 13, Isabella was referred to Child ACTT after several hospitalizations for self-harm and suicidal thoughts. She struggled with intense anger at home, feelings of isolation, and difficulty trusting others. Her family’s hesitation about medication made it harder to manage her emotional and behavioral challenges. Her early therapy focused on building trust, and a breakthrough came when Isabella confided in her therapist about self-harming, marking a turning point in their relationship.
As trust grew, Isabella and her therapist created a grounding box and used a Hello Kitty reward system to support her progress. Her family became more open to medication, and positive changes followed: fewer outbursts, more laughter, and a decline in suicidal thoughts. By the end of treatment, Isabella felt like a different person and even built stronger relationships at school. She was discharged after nine months, and her family later shared that she continued to thrive, now dreaming of becoming a veterinarian.
Child’s name and photo have been changed for her protection, but her story is very real.