ACT ECHO Clinic
Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is a teleconsultation model designed for common diseases that, like psychotic disorders, have a high public health impact, require complex management, and for which clinical expertise is limited. Project ECHO seeks to increase the capacity for local clinicians to provide safe, effective, and evidence-based treatment to underserved clinical populations in their own communities. The model allows our implementation team at the University of Washington to more effectively target agencies in remote areas and allow them to have videoconferencing capabilities (via Zoom) that will help to facilitate remote consultation.
Since Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams span the entire geography of Washington State, our ACT ECHO clinic enables the development of a learning community that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. These clinics occur monthly and are available to all ACT teams within Washington State only. A typical ECHO clinic includes a brief didactic presentation relevant to providing ACT services to individuals living with serious mental illness, as well as a case presentation by one team as an opportunity for the SPIRIT lab expert panel and other teams in attendance to provide clinical consultation.
If you are interested in learning more about our ECHO program, are a member of a WA ACT team and would like more information, or have interest in lending your expertise as a didactic presenter, please contact Chris McCain.