Testimonials that relate to evaluation work.
For the past 10 years, working with the Center for Behavioral Health Integration team has been key to improving the quality of how we care for children in immigrant families. Their collaboration to implement evidence-based tools for addressing behavioral health and to measure of patient and parent outcomes has allowed us to obtain grant funding to continue to better our work and support parents new to Vermont.
Andrea E. Green, MDCM, FAAP (She/her/hers)
Director Pediatric New American Program
University of Vermont Children’s Hospital
Evidence-based tools for addressing behavioral health
I had the pleasure of working with Patrick Kinner and other members of the C4BHI team over the course of four years as part of large-scale, system-wide initiatives related to Community Benefit and Social Determinants of Health, with support spanning 20+ hospitals across 70+ communities in California, Oregon and Hawaii. During this time, I was consistently pleased with both the quality and timeliness of C4BHI’s work, and their project management of multiple, concurrent and complex projects. These projects spanned a wide variety of evaluation and strategy needs, including: performance management system design; community health needs assessment design, facilitation, analysis, and writing; and design of leadership performance guidelines.
C4BHI has a thoughtful, nimble approach that allowed for flowing in and out of different projects to accommodate for restructure and changes, which was essential to maintaining strategy and evaluation support of our community projects amidst rapid changes during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This was one of the most appreciated and impressive parts of working with C4BHI, and something that made them feel like an essential and integrated member of my team. I recommend C4BHI without reservation to any organization looking for evaluation expertise or project management related to health and social needs.
-Amy Lasher, Adventist Health
Project management of multiple, concurrent and complex projects
Staff at the Center for Advancing Prevention Excellence have had an opportunity to benefit from the incredible evaluation expertise at the Center for Behavioral Health Integration on numerous federally funded projects spanning almost 10 years and counting. The majority of our projects have been put out for bid, and C4BHI consistently comes in as the most favorable candidate due to their thoughtful and grounded approach, well-rounded expertise, and very reasonably priced services. In addition, we have had a chance to really get to know and appreciate the many wonderful qualities of C4BHI staff. Always forward thinking and aware of the latest advances in the field, their staff are very welcoming of conversation and ideas. We thoroughly enjoy working with them and are confident in every outcome they have measured for us. We get excited to share our findings with our key stakeholders thanks to C4BHI, because we know the information has been collected, analyzed, and presented in a systematic way that will be meaningful to them. That in and of itself speaks volumes.
We get excited to share our findings with our key stakeholders
C4BHI joined the Vermont’s Pediatric Mental Health Care Access (PMHCA) program in 2022 following a competitive procurement process and has been a valued asset in supporting the program evaluation of a federally-funded program aimed at improving the mental health of children and youth. C4BHI hit the ground running and has helped to develop a program evaluation plan to measure and report on the reach and impact of the VT Child Psychiatry Access Program, as well as statewide training efforts and the benefits of other PMHCA activities. C4BHI has consistently contributed strong data support, evaluation expertise, participation in federal awardee meetings, and their team brings a valued collaborative spirit to the PMCHA program. Their positive approach and flexibility to evolving needs and guidelines within this program have added so much value to the process. And their team-based style and clear communication is so appreciated. Not to mention they are just such a pleasure to work with personally!
Value added team-based style
We have been working with Dr. Kamon and Dr. Turner at the Center for Behavioral Health Integration for many years and have had nothing but an exemplary experience. Our mission at Spectrum Youth and Family Services is to assist young people who are suffering from mental health disorders and substance use disorders, and they have been key on our work regarding SBIRT. Our country is in the midst of a mental health and substance abuse crisis and Vermont is no exception, particularly when it comes to teenagers and young adults. C4BHI has given us the tools to reach more clients than ever and to do so in an evidence-based and professional manner.
Evidence-based tools to reach more clients than ever
The Central Vermont Medical Center Emergency Department has had a long and successful collaboration with C4BHI which has led to a better appreciation and understanding of working in the substance use space.
C4BHI was instrumental in helping our department obtain an SBIRT Grant a decade ago which served as a catalyst for the department’s approach to caring for people who use drugs. The training and lessons learned in that initial effort have served us well as we have develop programs for point-of-care screening/MI, treatment, and facilitated linkage to care for people suffering from alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder. C4BHI helped our local Central Vermont Prevention Coalition obtain HRSA grant funding and subsequent data acquisition and evaluation to expand and improve our local prevention coalition.
C4BHI’s ability to inform our efforts and gather data that provides meaningful and actionable results has allowed us to continually improve our programming and grow in our approach to caring for people who use drugs.
Data to inform meaningful and actionable results
“Participants were engaged throughout the two-day event, both during breakout rooms and via chat. As always, Win and Jody were very thorough in their presentation, while also being extremely warm with participants and consistently encouraging their continued interaction. The feedback we consistently received from participants was that they were enjoying the training and for those who had previously had SBIRT training, they indicated that it was “The Best SBIRT Training” they’d ever had.“
The Best SBIRT Training
C4BHI psychologists were a tremendous help to our Central Vermont Medical Center’s adoption of integrated approaches to patient care. Not only did they commit their complete attention to our Emergency Department team as we adopted SBIRT protocols; but they also attended to each essential element of the implementation including onsite coaching/supervision, training across medical provider groups, evaluation and Continuous Quality Improvement. Their focus on and support for sustainability of the work was critical to my role as project champion and to the hospital’s mission of supporting the patients and families in our community. In fact, the SBIRT collaboration with C4BHI spearheaded a new approach to caring for our patients. This integrated approach has now taken off in many of our other hospital and outpatient medical departments. CVMC, with the help of C4BHI is now much more proactively involved throughout our Central Vermont community in prevention, treatment, and recovery and applying for funding to extend our reach and efforts at building a seamless system of care substance use and co-occurring disorders.
Attention to each essential element of SBIRT implementation
For over 10 years, JBS International has utilized C4BHI and its team as “go to” national experts in the field of behavioral health. The diversity of experience among the staff at C4BHI has provided critical support for our larger efforts in providing programmatic technical assistance, clinical training and evaluation. Consistently and dependably, the C4BHI team is quick to respond, collaborative, and creatively adds to the final outcomes, helping providers and government organizations.
“go to” national experts in the field of behavioral health
Implementing a new statewide behavioral health integration project was a daunting task for our team. We were familiar with behavioral health integration concepts, but didn’t know where to begin or what questions to ask to facilitate a successful series of implementation launches. Jody and Win provided us with intensive and comprehensive training and consultation, including site visits to work alongside us while we met with challenging healthcare systems and fine-tuned our capabilities. They were very much our guides, coaching us along the way. As a result we quickly became proficient integrationists. Of course, we continued to find additional opportunities to use their expertise.
The C4BHI team excels in evaluation. Their evaluation support has made a significant difference to our project. They’ve helped us to accurately capture and report project metrics, identify opportunities for QI, and supported several QI efforts which led to improved implementation. Successes have ranged from increased staff engagement through revisiting and addressing readiness for integration to increased adherence to the integration protocol.
Lastly, I cannot speak highly enough of their strength in delivering skills-based training. We have used the C4BHI team to successfully prepare several cohorts of providers to deliver evidence-based interventions with trainings that include a heavy emphasis on experiential learning and feedback. I can say with certainty that the training was able to shift most of our providers into a new clinical space in which they began to deliver interventions more aligned with what the literature shows is effective.
One of the best parts of working with C4BHI is that they are a trusted team of professionals sincerely excited about their work and in supporting others to carry behavioral health integration forward!
Trusted team of professionals sincerely excited about their work