[Assertive "case management": a complete evaluation of a hospital based program].

This study measured the effectiveness of a comprehensive community treatment program modeled after an Assertive Case Management structure. It used an experimental random assignment design. Over a six month period, patients in the ACM program, despite their acute symptoms, had better vocational and social outcomes, less symptomatology, lower recidivism and length of hospital stay rates. Most revealing was their reported quality of life and lower perceived family burden than the hospital program patients. Further, the ACM patients' overall treatment costs were lower than the patients in the hospital program.