Editor Alice Lockhart, BA Director of Communications alice_lockhart@med.unc.edu Photography Brian Strickland Photography Sunny Westerman Copyright UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health CB 7160 Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Cuddeback receives Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award Gary Cuddeback, PhD, MSW, MPH, director of the Center’s Community Outcomes Research and Evaluation Center, also associate professor in the UNC School of Social Work and adjunct professor in psychiatry, received a 2017 Office of the Provost Engaged Scholarship Award for engaged scholarship in service to …

Karen Lamont, vice president, Kalos Golf in Chapel Hill, golf tour operator offering golf cruises and private jet tours around the world, recently joined the Center’s advisory board. Karen and her husband Jim moved to North Carolina in 1983; they have three children, one of whom has special needs and resides at home. She received …

Mental wellness and recovery go well beyond medications and therapy; as with housing, employment is a critical part of many individuals’ recovery plans. This year’s successful 24th Annual STEP (Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program) Symposium featured the evidence-based Individual Placement and Support (IPS) supported employment-training model and included a panel of clients who discussed …

Emily Clark Kristin Lukasiewicz Typically, Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams provide 24/7 community-based care to individuals with severe mental illness. For the second year, the Center’s two ACT teams also provided shadowing training for other ACT providers and administrators. Shadowing provides an up close and personal look at professionals providing high fidelity and evidence-based …

Thava Mahadevan Beth Rossi The UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health has received a three-year accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), an independent, nonprofit accreditor of health and human services including behavioral medicine. The accreditation is under UNC Behavioral Health Community Access and Recovery Empowerment (UNC BH CARES), …

We have had a very busy and exciting spring. We recently received our three-year accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), following an extensive survey of our programs. Thanks to Beth Rossi and Thava Mahadevan for their leadership in accomplishing this very important goal. Our UNC PAWS program has received tremendous …

UNC PAWS is a Personal Support Dog program that provides therapeutic benefit to clients of the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health. The program rescues dogs from local shelters and works with a nonprofit that supervises inmates who train the dogs to become emotional support animals. Earlier this spring, PAWS announced it would need to raise $50,000 by the end of June to continue operations. As of this week, they have achieved the goal.

We have had an exciting year at the Center. We continue to navigate the ever-changing mental health system to help individuals with serious mental illness in our local communities and to train mental health professionals around the State. Take a look at our recent accomplishments.

UNC PAWS, a dog-training therapy program that helps clients with mental health disorders, might be suspended unless their fundraising campaign is successful.

Alliance Behavioral Healthcare and the UNC Wake ACTT Primary Care Integration program received a Programs of Excellence Award for care integration.

"Thanks to this donation, we plan to create a case management team consisting of a full-time, masters-level clinical social worker, and a half-time peer support specialist," said John H. Gilmore, MD, the center's director. "This team will be focused on providing individuals and their families with the resources and support they need to achieve the fullest recovery possible."

Tag: 2017

Editor

News Briefs

Karen Lamont joins Center advisory board

The 24th STEP Symposium features supported employment

ACT Teams provide shadowing training for North Carolina and Virginia ACT teams

The Center receives three-year CARF accreditation

Director’s Message

UNC PAWS reaches fundraising goal

Center’s Annual Review 2016

Center’s UNC PAWS program in danger of being defunded

UNC Wake ACT Team’s Primary Care Integration program and Alliance Behavioral Healthcare receive an award

UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health receives $300,000 gift