Initiatives

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 will be facilitated by national experts, and many will include extended case consultation and rostering. See the landing page for details about each training

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.

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.

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 Adcare Educational Institute of Maine, Inc.

Working in a broad range of ways to build Maine’s capacity, the MBHWDC plans to provide 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.

Expanding Medication-Assisted Recovery Services & Building a Stronger Recovery‐Oriented System for Substance Use Disorder Treatment in Maine

Project Summary
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.

Collaborators & Partners
This effort was led by Project Director, Lisa Letourneau MD, MPH, working in partnership with Catherine Chichester at CCSME. Project partners included Eric Haram (Haram Consulting), serving as consultant and content expert in addiction treatment. Key collaborators included Maine Quality Counts (QC) and the Maine Medical Association (MMA), both of which have been strong advocates for addressing the opioid epidemic and have links to medical providers and primary care practices statewide. We also engaged state partners, including leaders from Maine DHHS, MaineCare, Maine SAMHS, and Maine CDC, and partnered with health systems and practices that are building systems to provide MAT services to identify factors that support or detract from their ability to provide such care. Additionally, we partnered with the Maine Alliance for Addiction & Mental Health Services to link with Maine’s SUD treatment community, and the Maine Alliance for Addiction Recovery to link with the recovery community.

Project Report & Plan

Presentation: Maine’s Opioid Epidemic: Building a Stronger, Statewide, Recovery-Oriented System of Care

Research and Needs Assessment

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.

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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 provided professional education and technical assistance to improve the Maine behavioral health workforce’s understanding of co-occurring mental health and substance abuse, health issues, and trauma.

CCSME also worked to improve the Maine behavioral health system. To accomplish this goal, CCSME participated in multiple initiatives, including but not limited to:

• The Accelerating Behavioral Health Information Sharing Strategic Action Task Force
• The Maine Trauma-Informed Expansion Grant “Expand ME” Statewide Leadership Group
• The OSA Prevention Task Force
• The Behavioral Health Integration: Steering Committee and Task Force