Free PDFs of PowerPoints now available!/ Mental-health and addictions professionals in community agencies, hospitals, and Health Homes play an important role in helping veterans of the U.S. armed forces and their family members access help to manage symptoms of mental illness, substance use disorders, and brain injury. That's why the Center for Evidence-Based Practices at Case Western Reserve University teamed up with VA medical centers to provide several important video-conference training events in February, March & April, 2013.

Additional dates for Columbus (5/14 & 5/20)! ... Join Jeremy Evenden, MSSA, LISW-S, and Scott Gerhard, MA, LSW, of our Center at their Motivational Interviewing (MI) training events in Akron and Columbus, Ohio, from February 19 to May 21, 2013. Register online today. Participants learn MI's client-centered approaches for responding to desire for change among individuals with SMI and/or substance use disorders in a number of service settings (e.g., IDDT, ACT, Health Homes, other best practices). $60/event. CEUs and supervision credits.

Our Center is presenting an important training series as part of the Ohio Medicaid Health Homes initiative, which is sponsored by the Ohio Department of Mental Health. The event, titled "A Breath of Fresh Air: Promoting Health-Behavior Change among People with SPMI," is designed for health and behavioral healthcare organizations in Ohio. This event occurs on five different days in five cities from March to June, 2013. Learn how to support health-behavior change with stages of change, motivational interviewing, and an emphasis on tobacco interventions. Register online today. $0, Free./ CEUs, CMEs.

Scott Gerhard, MA, LSW, of our Center will present a training session, titled "Why Won't My Clients Do What I Tell Them To?," at a meeting of the Ohio Chief Probation Officers Association (OCPOA) on Thursday, February 7. This session examines change from a client-centered perspective, drawing upon stage-wise principles (stages of change) and motivational interviewing. This training is designed for chief administrators of probation services and community control agencies and their staff.

Our EBP conference featured a keynote plenary about the transformation of health and human services in Ohio and 49 workshops to improve the integration, management, and delivery of services to adults and adolescents with mental illness and substance use disorders. The event took place Oct 22 & 23. Our Center also presented Champion Awards to three outstanding organizations. Certificates of attendance and CEUs have been mailed. Free PDFs of many presentations are available online.

Our Center presented its 2012 Champion Awards to three organizations that have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to implementing EBPs and improving access to quality care in their communities. The organizations are Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services (EBP Champion); Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Stark County (IDDT Champion); and Cleveland Sight Center (SE/IPS Champion).

This training series is designed for staff members and supervisors of housing services for people with severe mental illness and/or substance use disorders (e.g., permanent supportive & independent, transitional, adult care, emergency shelters, ymca & ywca). The events take place from December 2012 to April 2013 and are free for individuals who work in Ohio. This series introduces you to Motivational Interviewing and Benefits Information and Education (SSI, SSDI, Medicaid, Medicare).

A recent addition to the curriculum of the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences explores in depth the process of change and innovation. It's a new elective course on Motivational Interviewing (MI), an evidence-based practice that is one of the best available to help individuals, families, groups, and organizations identify and move beyond their own ambivalence to change. The course is taught by staff members of the Center for Evidence-Based Practices.

The American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout takes place on Thursday, November 15. Our Center is using the event to remind health and behavioral health professionals to encourage people with serious mental illness and substance use disorders to consider reducing and eliminating the use of tobacco products. There are five easy things you can do in your practice. We also encourage organizations to incorporate tobacco recovery into their integrated primary and behavioral healthcare initiatives and Health Homes.

An analysis of employment data from23 behavioral healthcare organizations in Ohio shows that 36 percent of people with serious mental illness who received evidence-based Supported Employment/Individual Placement and Support (SE/IPS) services were competitively employed in full-time or part-time jobs in September 2011. The number is significant, because the national average was 37 percent in that same month for similar services delivered at multiple organizations in 12 states as part of the Johnson & Johnson-Dartmouth Community Mental Health Program.