Conference agenda — In-person
Wednesday, November 1
9 am – 12 pm ET | Pre-conference events (pre-registration required)
- RELATE: A reflective approach to supervising
- Addiction 101: Understanding addiction to provide stigma-free, whole-person care in medical and social services
- Site visits
- Marie’s Place and The Cottage Community
- Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program
11:45 am – 1:15 pm ET | Lived experience luncheon (pre-registration required)
12:30 – 1:30 pm ET | Lunch
1:30 – 2 pm ET | Welcome address
2 – 3:15 pm ET | Plenary session: Leading with lived experience
It is vital for people with lived experience to play an active role in shaping the field of complex care, including designing and evaluating programs, developing and advocating for policies, and leading organizations and agencies. Complex care has embraced the wisdom and power of lived experience, incorporating peers as navigators, community health workers, and promotors. Increasingly, consumers are serving on advisory boards and governing bodies, managing programs and organizations, and leading advocacy efforts. This session will explore the unique value of leaders with lived experience and how organizations can further elevate and diversify the roles of those with lived experience.
- Marcella Middleton, Executive Director, A Way Home America
- Paolo del Vecchio, Director of the Office of Management, Technology, and Operations (OMTO), Director of the Office of Recovery (OR), SAMHSA
- Victor Murray, Senior Director of Community Engagement and Capacity Building, Camden Coalition (moderator)
3:30 – 4:45 pm ET | Workshop sessions
- TOWN HALL — The Behavioral Health Roadmap for reform: Successes and next steps
- Centering community and well-being: Shifting power and healing systemic harms
- Contracting for collaboration: A guide to healthcare- CBO contracts
- Evidence-based approaches for integrating substance use disorder treatment into mainstream medicine
- How a safety net health system and social service agency collaboration to address housing insecurity
- Kids Health Harbor: Compassionate, collaborative care for children in the foster care system
- Promoting integrated behavioral health in pediatrics: Rhode Island efforts
5 – 5:45 pm ET | A complex care story share
Sharing personal narratives is a critical component of complex care and change-making. Authentic and empowering story-sharing promotes a holistic and empathetic narrative that can foster empathy, strengthen relationships, facilitate healing, and cultivate hope. This applies to complex care stakeholders, including providers, administrators, researchers, policymakers, and those with lived expertise. As authors of our own stories, everyone should be able to make an informed decision about how, when, and why we share our experiences and have the opportunity to share our stories in our own words and from our perspectives. This session will explore the role of story-sharing in complex care and how all of us can bring and leverage our personal narratives in this work.
- Luis Ortega, Director & Founder, Social Impact Storyteller
6 – 8 pm ET | Welcome reception
Thursday, November 2
7:15 am – 8:30 am ET | A sneak peek into the complex care certificate: Relationship-building in complex care (pre-registration required)
7:30 am – 8:30 am ET | INSPIRE listening session
8 – 9 am ET | Breakfast
9 – 9:30 am ET | Plenary session: The behavioral health priorities of complex care
The behavioral health needs of all Americans have been at the forefront of national conversations in recent years, with rates of anxiety, depression, addiction, and drug overdose on the rise. This crisis has been exacerbated by the social isolation resulting from the pandemic, gun violence and public safety concerns, and structural racism. Yet, this crisis also creates opportunities — including new investments, innovation, and greater recognition and reduced stigma around behavioral health conditions.
This national response reflects a growing understanding of the need for a comprehensive and coordinated behavioral health response. What is included in this comprehensive response? How do we ensure equitable access? This session will outline current federal and state priorities in behavioral health and how policymakers and advocates are ensuring that these initiatives benefit those with complex health and social needs.
- Emily Bailey, Chief, Office of Behavioral Health, MassHealth
- Reyna Taylor, Senior Vice President of Public Policy, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
- Kathleen Noonan, President & CEO, Camden Coalition (moderator)
9:30 – 10:15 am ET | Plenary session: The value of community behavioral health centers in an ecosystem of care
Organizations and communities across the country are piloting and scaling approaches to increase coordination and improve access to behavioral health services for those with complex health and social needs. The Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CBHC) is an emerging model “designed to ensure access to coordinated comprehensive behavioral health care” and improve coordination with healthcare providers, social service agencies, law enforcement, schools, and other complex care ecosystem organizations. This session will explore the value that CBHCs offer patients and community partners seeking a more collaborative and whole-person approach to care.
- Brent McGinty, President & CEO, Missouri Coalition of Community Mental Health Centers
- Debbian Fletcher-Blake, President & CEO, VIP Community Services, Inc.
- Natasha Dravid, Senior Director of Care Management & Redesign Initiatives, Camden Coalition (moderator)
10:30 – 11:45 am ET | Workshop sessions
- TOWN HALL — Coordinating care for MassHealth members
- All that jazz: Making the case for interprofessional behavioral health complex care teams
- Approaches to integrating community voice into program design and delivery
- From invisibility to action: Unleashing the power of segmentation
- Providers as advocates for evidence-based SUD care: Lessons from New Jersey’s MATrx Initiative
- Racial trauma: A deep dive into complex care core competencies
- Understanding and responding to participant engagement barriers in complex care interventions
12 – 1 pm ET | Lunch
1:15 – 2:30 pm ET | Workshop sessions
- Bridging the Gap: Delivering whole person mental healthcare in complex scenarios
- Caring for care providers: A workshop to co-develop strategies to strengthen the behavioral health workforce
- Knowledge Café: How can we ensure social drivers of health screenings are impactful and effective?
- Readiness assessment for consumer partnership
- Vicarious trauma & Housing First: Emphasizing trust & connection
- Whole person for the whole nation: Success modeling California’s historic Medicaid reform
2:45 – 4:30 pm ET | Beehive
2:45 – 3:45 pm ET | INSPIRE listening session
4:45 – 5:45 pm ET | Caring for those experiencing homelessness: A conversation with Jim O’Connell
Jim O’Connell has been serving individuals experiencing homelessness in Boston for nearly 40 years. He is the founding physician for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program and currently serves as the organization’s President. In this session, Jim will explore his care philosophy and strategies, the lessons gleaned, and the stories that still stick with him.
- Jim O’Connell, President, Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program
- Derek Winbush, Consumer, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program
Friday, November 3
8 – 9 am ET | Breakfast
8:45 – 10:30 am ET | Beehive
10:45 am – 12 pm ET | Workshop sessions
- A national strategy to improve household food security through Medicaid
- Brand new baseline: Building an effective housing-related training series for frontline complex care teams
- Can community- & health system-based care coordination truly be integrated? Lessons learned over five years
- Commonwealth Care Alliance: Building innovative, tailored services for patients with severe and persistent mental illness
- Deepening relationships and sparking motivation through avoidance behavior mapping
- One tool across the care continuum: Narrative leadership in the delivery of complex care
- Voices of parents in recovery and their adult children as a catalyst for change
12 – 12:30 pm ET | Lunch
12:30 – 1:45 pm ET | Plenary session: The therapeutic landscape: Embedding health and healing throughout the ecosystem
All people experience mental health along a continuum, whether one has a diagnosed mental health condition or not. The physical and social environments we encounter in our daily lives can contribute either positively or negatively to our mental health and well-being. Organizations that serve predominantly low-income and high need individuals can intentionally design programs and spaces to positively impact mental health and well-being through the use of physical space, staffing, organizational culture, and other elements. This session will explore how complex care ecosystems can promote mental health and well-being beyond traditional therapy and counseling. Specifically, how healthcare, education, and criminal-legal settings can create therapeutic landscapes that promote resilience and healing.
- Jenna Parafinczuk, Director of Student Support, Boston Public Schools
- Jenna Savage, Deputy Director, Office of Research and Development, Boston Police Department
- Kevin Simon, MD, MPH, Chief Behavioral Health Officer, Boston Public Health Commission
- Sheryl Mathis, Senior Director of Technical Assistance, Camden Coalition (moderator)