Kansas City, MO.- CHEEERS is represented in Kansas City this
week by Kimberly Craig, CEO, who has
been invited to participant in Project ECHO , an innovative project supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Administration (SAMHSA) to address the needs of Pregnant and postpartum
women with mental health and substance use disorders. This pilot project is a collaborative effort
with subject matter experts joining with the University of Missouri, and the Addiction
Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Center of Excellence on Behavioral for Pregnant and
Postpartum Women and Their Families, along with the SAMHSA funded programs that
serve pregnant women throughout the United States. Project ECHO, leverages multipoint
videoconferencing and a subject matter expert (SME) panel representing a wide
range of disciplines and expertise to provide individualized, case-based learning
to clinicians. In particular the Pregnant
and Postpartum Women’s ECHO pilot aims to 1)
develop capacity to safely and effectively treat individuals and family members
impacted by substance use and mental health
disorders and to monitor outcomes, and 2) develop a model to treat complex
substance use and co-occurring disorder
conditions in pregnant and postpartum women who receive services in one of
SAMHSA’s Pregnant and Parenting Women Grantee
locations. CHEEERS is honored to participate
in projects that introduce innovative methods to meet the needs of individuals
with mental health and substance use disorders. Kimberly’s contribution on the panel will incorporate her 16 + years of experience
working in women’s services, her knowledge around implementation of family
centered programming (namely father or male involvement in predominately female
focused programming) the use of Peer Support Services as an effective and evidenced based intervention, as well as methods to develop and integrate Peer Support
Mentors in family centered programs.
