CCSME is supporting a Motivational Interviewing training initiative within the Maine Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, in partnership with HETI. This program supports a full motivational interviewing learning community for VR staff including foundational, advanced and supervision trainings, coaching and coding.
The Maine SUD Learning Community, through funding from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, supports prescribing clinicians and their teams to provide more evidence-based treatment to individuals and their families affected by Substance Use Disorders and Opioid Use Disorder (SUD/OUD) to promote recovery and reduce drug overdose deaths. The aim is to increase the number of prescribing clinicians offering evidence-based treatments and the number of patients that they serve. The Statewide SUD Learning Community offers an array of education and support modalities for prescribers (physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants) and their entire practice team through an array of highly accomplished faculty consultants and with support from Muskie School of Public Policy e-learning team and AdCare Educational Institute Maine.
The New England Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC) provides training and technical assistance services to the professional and volunteer prevention workforce within the New England states. The New England PTTC is developing a diverse program with multiple modes of training and information dissemination. This includes collaboration with states to hold live, in person trainings featuring the latest prevention science, but also multiple opportunities for distance learning to maximize the reach of technical assistance in the region. CCSME is coordinating distance learning for the New England PTTC, which includes webinars, online courses, and Project ECHO distance learning programs. The New England PTTC is administered by ADEPT Maine.
Working in a broad range of ways to build Maine’s behavioral health workforce capacity, the Partnership for ME plans to support fully integrated behavioral health services across prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery. Our website connects practitioners with training opportunities, certifications and online resources to help them provide first-rate care and advance their careers. Partnership for ME, formerly the Maine Behavioral Workforce Development Collaborative, is a collaboration between ADEPT Educational Institute of Maine, CCSME and the USM Center for Learning through funding from the Maine Office of Behavioral Health.
CCSME supported two projects under this funding: development of a report and resource on addressing stigma related to opioid use disorder (view report) and a community of practice supporting integrated care for co-occurring conditions in Maine CCBHCs (view resources).
Strengthening Maine’s Trauma Informed Learning Community | In response to the mass casualty event in Lewiston in October 2023, CCSME has partnered with AdCare Maine, NAMI Maine, and Maine DHHS with funding from SAMHSA to provide trainings on evidence-based practices for the treatment of grief and trauma to behavioral health professionals in Maine. The evidence-based practices were carefully selected to address clients across the lifespan. From on-the-scene relief to long-term grief and trauma care, they will be implemented across the timeline of disaster response. The trainings are facilitated by national experts, and many include extended case consultation and rostering.
In partnership with Maine DHHS through funding from SAMHSA, CCSME is providing information on available resources, training and information about the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model and evidence-based practices included within CCBHCs. Resources include information on trainings that may be relevant for CCBHC staff and administrators, information about the evidence-based programs required within CCBHCs, and information and training on CCBHC governance boards for people with lived experience and agencies.
CCSME received a SIIRG Grant from MeHAF to seek input from behavioral health consumers and people with lived experience on a new model of behavioral health care, the Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers (CCBHC), being piloted and implemented by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. The outreach objective was to understand consumer and stakeholder experiences with behavioral health services in Maine and seek their thoughts on the importance of the key components of the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic model (CCBHC). CCSME partnered with the Alliance for Addiction and Mental Health Services, the Consumer Council System of Maine, and Healthy Acadia and worked with Hart Consulting to produce a final report, which was distributed to stakeholders across the state involved in the CCBHC planning and implementation process. The report is available for download here: Maine Consumer Thoughts on the CCBHC Model of Care CCSME 2023.
CCSME conducted a planning process to identify strategies for expanding access to Medication-Assisted Recovery (MAR) to support a goal of creating a statewide, networked system of care in Maine for people with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) with a focus on improving care for uninsured and vulnerable populations. The project began with an assessment of current statewide and regional efforts to expand access to MAR services, aiming to identify key program elements that have contributed to the success of, and/or presented challenges to offering and expanding MAR services. It also included an assessment of policy opportunities for expanding access to MAR services, including payment, treatment, and legislative policies, and a review of pending relevant Maine legislation and successful policy initiatives in other states.
As part of this process, we convened key stakeholders to provide input on developing a plan for expanding access to MAR services and creating a statewide, networked system of care for SUD. The ultimate goal of the project was to produce an initial plan outlining potential options for expanding access to a consistent, statewide set of high-quality MAR services in Maine and identifying a range of potential funding sources to support the costs of implementing the proposed plan, as well as looking at opportunities to leverage existing funding sources.
In 2016, the Maine State Legislature passed LD 1537, “An Act to Combat Drug Addiction through Enforcement, Prevention, Treatment and Recovery” (Public Law 378), which provides funding for the establishment and expansion of peer support recovery centers, among other initiatives. As a result of this legislation, the Maine Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHS) asked AdCare Educational Institute of Maine, Inc. (AdCare), who worked with the Co-Occurring Collaborative Serving Maine (CCSME) and the Alliance for Addiction and Mental Health Services, Maine (AAMHS), to conduct a needs assessment of recovery services and supports in each of Maine’s nine public health districts.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office is partnering through a Bureau of Justice Assistance, Second Change Co-Occurring Reentry grant, Project Reentry, with CCSME, Maine Pretrial Services, Inc., Catholic Charities of Maine, Goodwill Industries of Northern New England, My Sister’s Keeper, University of New England, Department of Corrections Probation and Parole, and Family Crisis Services to prepare 100 inmates who have co-occurring disorders for release and transition into the community with on-going services and monitoring as they put their lives back together.
The Outreach Partnership Program is a nationwide initiative of the National Institute of Mental Health. As partners in this program, CCSME and NAMI Maine conducted statewide mental health outreach and education programs to deliver up-to-date, science-based information to the public, a broad range of health professionals, and traditionally under-served populations.
CCSME has been instrumental in developing and delivering the annual MSPP Beyond the Basics Conference for NAMI Maine. From 2011 through 2014, CCSME collaborated with NAMI Maine and the Maine Primary Care Association to deliver the spectrum of training programs offered by MSPP. The program goals are to increase public awareness about suicide prevention, reduce suicide behavior among Maine residents, and improve access to approporiate prevention and intervention services.
The MSPP recommends a comprehensive approach. Multiple program strategies reach the general public and people who are at risk. Community and school-based program components will be conducted in coordination with existing prevention efforts.
The program is housed at the NAMI Maine office in Augusta and is led by the Maine CDC in the Department of Health and Human Services with partners from the Departments of Education, Public Safety, Corrections and Labor.
CCSME provided technical assistance to Quality Counts to support the adoption of the SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment) in Health Homes in Maine through a Learning Community.
SBIRT is an evidence based set of clinical guidelines used to screen, reduce substance use risk and to referral to specialty addiction treatment as needed. This work was made possible with funding from the Maine State Innovation Model Initiative.
CCSME assisted Maine’s Adult Drug Treatment Courts with training and implementation of three specific evidence-based models applicable to the court population: Seeking Safety, Thinking for a Change and Moral Reconation Therapy.
Seeking Safety is an integrated treatment intervention program for trauma and substance abuse to reduce trauma symptoms, substance use, program retention and psychopathology. Thinking for a Change and Moral Reconation Therapy are cognitive behavioral curricula which address interpersonal communication skills and thought patterns that lead to problem behaviors.