CAFÉ TAC recently hosted the second webinar in its ongoing series on the challenges and opportunities presented by integrated care, and the implications for mental health peers and peer-run organizations in their efforts to promote recovery values and drive systems change.
This webinar, Integrated Care, Integrating Peer Support, shared information about integrated care models that incorporate medical health and mental health services with a focus on peer support as an integral component of the model.
The webinar was followed by an interactive Learning Community conversation. View the recording of that here.
This webinar and Learning Community were hosted by Cherene Caraco, peer leader, advocate, and CEO of North Carolina’s Promise Resource Network, and consultant to a network of integrated care sites with peer support as the critical active ingredient to success. She was joined by Juan Ortiz, Integrated Care Project Manager with NC DMH/DD/SAS, and two professionals from the UNC WakeBrook team, Dr. Jessica Waters, MD, and Barbara Beirne James, LCAS, LCSW. They discussed the details of their integrated care model, and shared lessons learned in the implementation of integrated peer services through their project.
This webinar and follow-up learning community conversation is ideal for:
- Funders of integrated care programs and pilots
- Leaders of organizations that are operating integrated care sites, with or without peer support
- Medical and mental health providers considering integrated care
- Peer-run organizations
- Peer Specialists
- State leaders of SAMHSA funding for Promoting Integration of Primary and Behavioral Health Care (PIPBHC)
There is a significant national trend of embedding people with lived mental health, substance use, former incarceration, homelessness and other experiences (i.e. Peer Supporters) in integrated care settings, including an emphasis on the valued role of peer support in integrated care in the bipartisan PEERS in Medicare Act of 2021. Integrated care is coming, but how does it work in the real world? Check out this webinar and learning community conversation to find out!