Intensive case management for severe mental illness (review)

"Introduction: Intensive Case Management (ICM) is a community‐based package of care aiming to provide long‐term care for severely mentally ill people who do not require immediate admission. Intensive Case Management evolved from two original community models of care, Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Case Management (CM), where ICM emphasises the importance of small caseload (fewer than 20) and high‐intensity input.
Objectives: To assess the effects of ICM as a means of caring for severely mentally ill people in the community in comparison with non‐ICM (caseload greater than 20) and with standard community care. We did not distinguish between models of ICM. In addition, to assess whether the effect of ICM on hospitalisation (mean number of days per month in hospital) is influenced by the intervention's fidelity to the ACT model and by the rate of hospital use in the setting where the trial was conducted (baseline level of hospital use)."

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