Putting Care at the Center will convene for its 10th year in Portland, OR, from October 15 – 17. Our national conference for the complex care field will, as always, include expert-guided sessions, opportunities for collaborative problem-solving and story sharing, and explorations of how we can build and strengthen our communities’ ecosystems of care. But it will also focus on the rapidly changing national landscape of health and social care policy, capability, and resourcing.

This year’s Putting Care at the Center conference is themed, “Complex care: Meeting the moment.” The theme reflects the need for the complex care field to respond to new challenges and opportunities arising from the significant social, political, and economic changes at the federal level – all while retaining our values and standards for data-driven, collaborative, person-centered care.

As we have learned from our partners and clients in recent weeks, there are many ways to perceive and prioritize the new threats and opportunities facing the complex care field in 2025. Similarly, there is no shortage of ways to define what “meeting the moment” means for our field right now.

Leading up to Putting Care at the Center 2025, we asked members of the conference’s planning committee to provide their own definition of “Complex care: Meeting the moment.” We also asked them what our national audience should look forward to come the October meeting. Our featured committee members include:

• Kathleen Noonan, President and CEO, Camden Coalition

• Mark Humowiecki, General Counsel and Senior Director of National Initiatives, Camden Coalition

• Connie Montgomery, Board Member and National Consumer Scholar, Camden Coalition

• Jim Hickman, National Center Advisor and Principal CalAIM Advisor, Camden Coalition

• Stephen Hoy, Chief Operating Officer, Patient & Family Centered Care Partner (PFCCpartners)

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What does the theme “Complex care: Meeting the moment” mean to you?

Kathleen: Meeting the moment with complex care means a couple of different things. At the Camden Coalition, we continue to do exactly what we’ve always done — which is meet people where they’re at, be patient-centered, and focus on the partnerships that are important to help the person that’s right in front of us and also those that are necessary to strengthen weakened ecosystems. So, meeting the moment for us is doing what we did 20 years ago when we started this work.

At the same time, meeting the moment right now is also dealing with a lot of big changes that are happening — a lot of big announcements around federal policy at a time in this country when people feel strongly about a lot of things and there are differing opinions. Meeting the moment is also an opportunity for us to get together and agree on what matters most to all of us — and we think there’s a lot.

Mark: I think this year’s theme captures both the resilience and the innovation of the complex care community. These are uncertain times, but at this point, uncertainty feels like a given. This is our tenth annual Putting Care at the Center conference. (Over time), we’re even more prepared as a community to support the clients and organizations serving them, no matter what’s thrown in our way.

What I love about our conference is that it’s a diverse and dynamic community that feels like family. Whether you’ve been to all our conferences or this is the first one, I expect you’ll feel welcomed, supported, and excited to be around people like you, working to improve the health and well-being of some of our most marginalized neighbors.

Connie: The theme “meeting the moment” means a whole lot to me at this time in my life. I’m an individual that lives with two rare disorders and three chronic health diseases. I’m also a person who has buried a number of family members from rare diseases and various health states. That leads me to where I am as a professional. Being a global patient advocate gives me an opportunity to speak to the fact that meeting the moment is so important for us as human beings: being helpers in humanity and in society and sharing our personal stories.

And this theme speaks to that for the Putting Care at the Center conference. It shows us that we have to pull together. We have to use each other’s experiences and insights, and bring all of that information to the table so that we can all collaborate and come up with solutions to help each other. It’s these strategies that will make a difference. We have to have research, resources, and clinical trials. We also have to have diversity in all of these spaces, as well as representation in the clinical staff that serve people. People need to feel a part. People need to feel heard. I know I did.

Jim: Every year, the Putting Care at the Center conference brings a gathering of like-minded individuals together to exchange ideas, share their experiences in caring for others, and to talk about those things that are working right. And I think this year in particular, in light of the dramatic rhetorical changes to the field of healthcare in general and Medicaid in particular, there’s never been a better year for social innovators like those who come to our conference. And why is that? Because this administration, as it showed in its first iteration, will be the ultimate challenge of innovating under constraints.

So, we’ll have to be ardent in our passion about why these policies and practices matter. But at the same time, we need to be bold to say to all these (challenges) coming at the people we care for, that we know we have practices and programs that can make a difference in all the ways you count differences — be it outcomes, dollars, or the quality of life.

Stephen: “Meeting the moment” to me means providing person-centered care despite industry disruption, policy changes, or the rest. It means keeping our mission at heart for providing person-centered care to everyone and embracing disruption and finding new opportunities among that.

It’s an interesting dynamic when health systems want to establish trust with their patients, family caregivers, or communities. One of the first ingredients to trustworthiness is transparency, and that’s really difficult for our legacy health system to have. We’re asking a system to be trusted, to be transparent when it hasn’t in the past, and that doesn’t come naturally or comfortably. Person-centered care transformations bubble up among the noise because they make sense. In that way, “meeting the moment” to me means that despite any political disruption, person-centeredness will still bubble up to the surface, because it is just the right thing to do. And the solutions are simple.

What do you hope attendees and participants take away from Putting Care at the Center 2025?

Kathleen: We think that the meeting this coming October is going to be one of the best we’ve ever had, for so many reasons. First, the complex care field is mature enough now that we have a lot of lessons learned — what we have and have not done well — and this is a really good time in the national conversation to ask, “What do we know?” People are going to come to the conference and, as we talk about meeting the moment right now, we can say, “What do we have that we must keep? What do we have that maybe we have to stop because it’s not working? And what are the new things we have to try?” And so, we think people are going to leave the conference with a renewed commitment to what’s working well and what we need to change.

Mark: This year, we’re excited to welcome people to Portland, Oregon, with our longstanding partner, CareOregon. Every year we work to improve the conference. This year, we’ll have more content over three days. We’ll have field trips on Thursday afternoon to get out into the community to experience innovative programs and cultural sites in Portland. We’ve increased the number of breakout sessions by 50% and kept everyone’s favorites like the Beehive and our story sharing sessions. We’ll also create spaces to connect and take part in self-care, which I’m sure will feel needed in October. Hopefully you’ll leave with at least a half-dozen new friends and lots of actionable insights that you can bring back to your work.

Connie: I hope that every individual that attends this conference leaves feeling energized to do the work that is required of them at their state and national level, and to continue to support the work done at the federal level for the sake of health care equity in this country. It is going to take all of us to keep the needle moving in the correct direction, so every human being feels included and a part of the healthcare process. I hope this meeting of “meeting the moment” energizes every individual to do what it is they can to be a part of the solution. Like I always say: we are the medicine we each need.

Jim: What’s important about this conference is to realize that you’re not alone addressing these challenges. You’re not alone in trying to figure out the most compassionate, effective, and efficient way to care for others. What I love about this conference is there’s always a new idea in the room. There’s always a new source of inspiration, and there’s always a moment of reflection where you go, “Wow, I (never looked) at it this way.” Every year I come back from these conferences just thinking about how I’ve got another reason to do the work I do. And I encourage everyone to come with that expectation and leave with that hope.

Stephen: I find that this can be lonely work at times, but it’s not so lonely at Putting Care at the Center. Being surrounded by like-minded and passionate leaders, as well as those with boots on the ground — our real leaders, those who provide complex care — that is easily my favorite part of coming to the conference. I always leave inspired, energized, and motivated, with good ideas to bring home. It’s not something you get in our daily work. It’s worth the trip to Portland, Oregon.