This October, the Putting Care at the Center 2025 meeting will be hosted in Portland, OR, in collaboration with CareOregon, a community-based nonprofit providing health services and community benefit programs to Oregon Health Plan members. CareOregon support the needs of more than 500,000 Oregonians through three coordinated care organizations (CCOs), a Medicare Advantage plan, a Tribal Care Coordination program, a dental care organization, and in-home medical care, palliative care and hospice with Housecall Providers.

This is the first time in its 10-year history that the conference will be held in the Pacific Northwest — and to some of the conference’s organizers, it has been a long time coming.

Jonathan Weedman, Senior Vice President of Clinical Services at CareOregon, has been a longtime attendee at the Camden Coalition’s annual conference. A mental health counselor by training, Jonathan struggled to find meetings that addressed — let alone understood — the vital tie between an individual’s health and social needs that defines his work.  Putting Care at the Center’s priority on gathering complex care professionals from across sectors and disciplines for networking, story-sharing, and educational opportunities was a revelation to him.

“It’s the one place that I go, and it is like family. It’s like everyone knows what I’m talking about. I can go to a housing presentation, and then I can go to something about medical complexities. And it’s all under one roof over a couple days, which is really powerful,” Jonathan said.

Jonathan approached Camden Coalition about CareOregon co-hosting an annual Putting Care at the Center meeting years ago. When the opportunity aligned for the 2025 meeting, he realized the significance of the date.

“We finally got to this place, and then we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s the 10-year anniversary, and we get to have it in Portland,’” Jonathan said.

With registration officially open for the 2025 meeting, Putting Care at the Center’s hundreds of annual conference attendees are now not only signing up for the conference; they are getting the chance to visit Portland and to learn more about CareOregon and their collaborators in care throughout the three-day meeting. So, what should you know about this year’s destination? For one, Jonathan said, there are few locations that better represent the Camden Coalition’s mission of improving the health and well-being of people with complex health and social needs through equitable ecosystems of care.

The state’s Medicaid program is managed through the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), which delivers services through regional CCOs. Whereas many state Medicaid programs use Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) or Managed Care Organization (MCOs) to address portions of a beneficiary’s overall health and wellness needs, CCOs are intended to treat the whole person: their physical, mental, and behavioral health, as well as their related social needs.

CareOregon owns two CCOs in the state — Columbia Pacific CCO and Jackson Care Connect — and is a major partner for the CCO Health Share of Oregon.

“When you think about how Oregon has managed Medicaid, it already starts to speak to complex care,” Jonathan said. “There’s an acknowledgment that people have a lot of aspects to their lives, and it’s not helpful to silo them off into different benefits.”

In general, OHA has been a proponent of innovative care plans and strategies that reflect the need to treat the whole person. Jonathan highlighted the authority’s Traditional Health Worker program, which provides overarching certification to professionals focused on person and community-centered care including community health workers, peer support specialists, health navigators, and birth doulas. In 2024, OHA also launched health-related social needs (HRSN) programs that provide eligible Medicaid beneficiaries with housing, nutrition, or outreach and engagement benefits.

“I think this all starts to paint the picture that Oregon is constantly thinking about complex care, as an entire state,” Jonathan said.

The CCOs coordinate all the benefits provided under the Oregon Health Plan and help coordinate the work of community-based organizations (CBOs) in Portland. A handful of those CBOs will be featured as site visit destinations on Thursday, October 16 during the conference. Jonathan highlighted Central City Concern, the city’s largest healthcare, housing, employment and recovery services provider for people experiencing homelessness, as well as the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest (NARA NW), a culturally appropriate service provider.

“We have so many CBO partners that are just consistently and constantly doing tons of wonderful work and learning how to weave within the systems of physical health, behavioral health, and social health,” Jonathan said.

Beyond the opportunities to connect and learn from the region’s leading care providers and systems, Putting Care at the Center 2025 attendees will get to discover the cultural institutions and attractions that make Portland a one-of-a-kind city. The Portland Art Museum and Oregon Historical Society will also be featured in Thursday’s site visits. Outside of the meeting agenda, attendees will have their pick of great meals; the birthplace of James Beard, Portland has become a thriving food scene over the past years. The city’s coffee scene is renowned. Powell’s Books, the largest independently owned bookstore in the world, is a short walk from the conference venue. And Forest Park, a 5,100-acre municipal park overlooking the Willamette River, is accessible from city limits. Attendees stretching their visit into a vacation will have their spread of downtown fun to intersperse with scenic drives and hiking trials.

“Yes, you want to learn and you want to be stimulated intellectually, but also you’ve got to stimulate your soul. And I think Portland’s a perfect place for that. There’s so much to do here,” Jonathan said.

More than anything, Jonathan hopes the 2025 meeting attendees gain what he’s always valued most from Putting Care at the Center over the years: a sense of community and a boost of inspiration, courtesy of his hometown, CareOregon, and the Camden Coalition. This year’s theme of “Complex care: Meeting the moment” reflects the reality that the complex care field is facing new and unprecedented challenges.

“I want people to be able to have a reprieve from that — to have some opportunity to come, relax, and be with like-minded humans who believe in complex care and want to do the right things for people, and feel a little bit of that recharge because they need it, as they go back and do more of the hard work,” Jonathan said.

Register for Putting Care at the Center 2025, in Portland, OR, from October 15 – 17, here. Early bird registration rates end July 30!