December 21, 2012
INNOVATORS
Conference 2012 Review: Over 300 from 19 States Attend 49 Workshops that Highlight EBPs, Health Homes for SMI
—by Paul M. Kubek
Cleveland, OH—The numbers are in: 311 people from 19 states attended our Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) Conference, which took place on October 22 and 23 at the Cleveland Airport Marriott. The event featured a keynote plenary on the transformation of health and human services in Ohio and 49 workshops on a variety of topics to improve the integration, management, and delivery of services to adults and adolescents with serious mental illness and substance use disorders. Conference participants came from the following states:
- AR, CA, CO, FL, ID, IL, IN, MA, MD, MI, MN, ND, NM, OH, PA, TN, TX, VT, WV
Our Center also presented its Champion Awards to three organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to implementing EBPs in their communities.
- Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services (EBP Champion)
- Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Stark County (IDDT Champion)
- Cleveland Sight Center (SE/IPS Champion)
See Champion Awards section below for more information.
CERTIFICATES
Certificates of attendance and continuing education were mailed at the end of November. Direct any questions about these documents to our main office:
POWERPOINT PDFs
PDFs of presentations for many workshops have been posted to the Conference 2012 details page in our event-calendar archive.
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
Title: Health & Human Services Transformation
Presenter: Greg Moody, director of the State of Ohio Governor's Office of Health Transformation (right in photo)
Respondent: Tracy Plouck, director of Ohio Department of Mental Health (ODMH) (left in photo)
Respondent: Orman Hall, director of Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services (ODADAS) (center in photo)
Abstract: The keynote plenary reviewed priorities to streamline health and human services in Ohio, with the goals of improving customer service, increasing program efficiencies, and reducing costs for Ohio taxpayers.
PowerPoint: Get a free PDF of Greg Moody's presentation (click here).

CHAMPION AWARDS
The Center for Evidence-Based Practices at Case Western Reserve University presented its 2012 Champion Awards to three outstanding organizations that have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to implementing EBPs and improving access to quality care in their communities.
The presentation took place on October 23 at our EBP Conference. This year's awards and recipients include the following:
Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) Champion Award 2012
Awarded to: Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services (GCBH) of Cincinnati, Ohio
Accepted by: Nikki Bisig , clinical services director (center in photo)
Presented by: Scott Gerhard, MA, LSW, (left in photo) & Jeremy Evenden, MSSA, LISW-S (right in photo) of the Center for Evidence-Based Practices
Agency website: www.gcbhs.com
Award Summary: GCBH has been implementing evidence-based practices and other service innovations for adults and youth with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders since 2005. The organization's leadership has promoted an agency-wide approach to implementation of these best practices. They have also sought and acquired grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and from local foundations, such as the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, to support their efforts. Examples of practices, models, and strategies implemented by GCBH include the following:
- Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT)
- Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)
- Integrated IDDT-ACT Teams
- Dual Diagnosis Capability in Mental Health Treatment (DDCMHT)
- Motivational Interviewing (MI)
- Assertive Homeless Outreach Services
- Transition to Independent Process (TIP) Model (for transitional youth)

Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT) Champion Award 2012
Awarded to: Mental Health and Recovery Services (MHRS) Board of Stark County in Canton, Ohio
Accepted by: Jackie Pollard, director of clinical services (left in photo)
Presented by: Ric Kruszynski, MSSA, LISW, LICDC (right in photo) & Jeremy Evenden, MSSA, LISW-S, of the Center for Evidence-Based Practices
Stark County website: www.starkmhrsb.org
Stark County news about award: www.starkmhrsb.org/site/DocServer
Award Summary: The MHRS Board of Stark County has been supporting the implementation of Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT) the evidence-based practice, and other service innovations for people with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders for over a decade. The county's leadership has promoted a system-wide approach that encourages the integration of best practices in organizations that serve adults and youth. They have also sought and acquired grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to support these efforts. Examples of practices, models, and other strategies supported by the Board include the following:
- Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT)
- Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)
- Integrated IDDT-ACT Teams
- Motivational Interviewing (MI)
- Assertive Homeless Outreach Services
- Residential Services
- Transition to Independent Process (TIP) Model (for transitional youth)

Supported Employment/ Individual Placement and Support (SE/IPS) Champion Award 2012
Awarded to: Cleveland Sight Center of Cleveland, Ohio
Accepted by: Steven Friedman, executive director (right in photo), and Joel Zureick (left in photo)
Presented by: Nicole Clevenger, BFA, of the Center for Evidence-Based Practices (center in photo)
Agency website: www.clevelandsightcenter.org
Agency news about award: www.clevelandsightcenter.org/news
Award Summary: The Cleveland Sight Center is one of the first organizations in the United States to implement the evidence-based SE/IPS model for people with visual impairments. (The model was originally designed for people with serious mental illness.) The Sight Center has taken an agency-wide approach to the implementation of SE/IPS by integrating it with its philosophy and mission to "educate, empower, and employ." The Sight Center has also been implementing Motivational Interviewing throughout its organization as a way to maximize the impact of SE/IPS services. According to Sight Center Executive Director Steven Friedman, this innovative approach to employment services has improved agency outcomes. "In the years since we started this initiative, our success rate in securing jobs for our clients has increased four-fold," Friedman writes on the Sight Center's website.
WORKSHOP SNAPSHOTS
Title: E-06 | Integration of Physical and
Behavioral Healthcare in Ohio Presenter Cynthia Holstein, MA, director of standards &
certification of Shawnee Mental Health Center, Inc., in Portsmouth,
Ohio, answers questions about her organization's Health Home for SMI
from participants in this workshop. Get related story (click here). | | 
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Title: E-06 | Integration of Physical and
Behavioral Healthcare in Ohio Presenter Don Thacker, LISW, executive director of Shawnee Mental
Health Center, Inc., in Portsmouth, Ohio, explains the importance of
agency leadership in the success of implementing a Health Home for people with SMI. Get related story (click here). | |  |
Title: F-01: Combined IDDT & ACT Team Leader Panel Presenter Ruth Scheufler, program manager at Crisis
Intervention and Recovery Center (CIRC) in Canton, Ohio, discusses the
benefits of integrating two evidence-based practices to enhance services for SMI. Get free PDF of PowerPoint presentation from this workshop (click here). | | 
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Title: F-01: Combined IDDT & ACT Team Leader Panel James
Portner, IDDT program coordinator at Veterans Affairs care center in
Columbus, Ohio, offers insights about effective team building for integrated IDDT-ACT services. Get free PDF of PowerPoint presentation from this workshop (click here). | | 
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Title: E-05: Pharmacology Update Christina M. Delos Reyes, MD, is a medical consultant at the Center for Evidence-Based Practices and chief clinical officer of the Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Cuyahoga County. Her workshop described the most recently approved medications being used to treat severe mental illness and substance use disorders. Get free PDF of PowerPoint presentation from this workshop (click here). | |  |
Title: E-04 | Supervising Supported Employment (SE) Teams
Presenter Ginger Yanchar, MSSA, LISW-S, is the Supported Employment Supervisor for NEIGHBORING Mental Health Services of Lake County in Mentor, Ohio. Her workshop explored four key components of leadership for SE: group supervision, job development, documentation, and outcomes. | |  |
Title: A-01 | Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse 101 Mark Cowart, MSSA, CCDC III-E, presented this workshop, which provided an overview of the process of addiction—from experimentation to harmful dependency—and the diagnostic criteria (DSM-IV-TR) of chemical abuse and chemical dependency. Get free PDF of PowerPoint presentation from this workshop (click here). | |  |
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Get a complete list of Conference 2012 workshop titles, abstracts, learning objectives, and presenters from the Overview and Agenda tabs of our event-calendar
archive (click here).
SPONSOR & CO-SPONSOR
Conference sponsor: Center for Evidence-Based Practices (CEBP) at Case Western Reserve University—a partnership between the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine—and its Ohio Coordinating Center of Excellence (CCOE) initiatives:
- Ohio SAMI CCOE | Substance Abuse and Mental Illness
- Ohio SE CCOE | Supported Employment/ Individual Placement and Support
Conference co-sponsor: Center for Innovative Practices (CIP) of the Begun Center for Violence Prevention, Research and Education at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University
LEADERSHIP OF CENTER FOR EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES
- Lenore A. Kola, PhD, co-director of the Center for Evidence-Based Practices at Case Western Reserve University & associate professor of social work at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences (get bio)
- Robert J. Ronis, MD, MPH, co-director of the Center for Evidence-Based Practices & the Douglas Danford Bond Professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine (get bio)
- Patrick E. Boyle, MSSA, LISW-S, LICDC, director of implementation services at the Center for Evidence-Based Practices (get bio)
A LEGACY OF EBP CONFERENCES
Learn more about some previous conferences sponsored by the Center for Evidence-Based Practices and its Coordinating Center of Excellence (CCOE) initiatives:
Paul M. Kubek, MA, is director of communications at the Center for Evidence-Based Practices at Case Western Reserve University.
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