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The Co-Occurring Collaborative Serving Maine (CCSME), an organization that advocates for best practices, encourages professional development, maximizes collaboration, and facilitates integrated health and behavioral health services, recognized the work of É«ÏãÊÓƵ’s Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) by presenting Shelley Cohen Konrad, Ph.D., LCSW, FNAP, director of the School of Social Work and the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC), and Kris Hall, M.F.A., program manager of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative, with the 2019 Innovative Practice Award.

The award honors an organization that has provided exemplary service to clients and families to improve outcomes for people with behavioral health needs through innovative, science-based programs and services.

É«ÏãÊÓƵ’s IPEC program fosters community-centered, collaborative learning and interprofessional practice.

É«ÏãÊÓƵ and IPEC recently hosted the Southern Maine Harm Reduction Conference, a series of workshops to discuss ideas and strategies aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with substance use and other high-risk behaviors.  During the event, IPEC joined the City of Portland Public Health Division in bringing hundreds of students, faculty members, health care providers and advocates together for a day of learning. The program also included a session with CCSME on stigma that brought together community providers, students and faculty.

CCSME has been at the forefront of creating new models of services in Maine and continues to promote consumer voices on its board and in its projects. 

Conrad and Hall accepted the award at CCSME’s annual meeting in Augusta.