OUR MISSION
The Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health supports and promotes the use of centralized standards and best practices to advance behavioral health services for individuals with serious mental illness, serious emotional disturbances, and co-occurring conditions.
WHAT WE DO
The Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health provides training, technical assistance, and fidelity monitoring for entities responsible for developing and implementing evidence-based practices for individuals with serious mental illness, serious emotional disturbance, and co-occurring conditions.

TRAINING
Whether you want to improve existing skills or expand your horizons, our multi-disciplinary team developed a variety of trainings for a variety of audiences.

FIDELITY AND EVALUATION
Our subject matter experts are dedicated to providing formal, external reviews through a collaborative hands-on approach.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Backed by a team of experienced professionals, our strategic technical assistance meets the needs of varying stakeholders and deliver lasting changes with measurable growth.
AREAS OF FOCUS
The Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health currently provides technical assistance to behavioral health service providers and stakeholders who provide the following four areas of focus.

ASSERTIVE COMMUNITY TREATMENT (ACT)
Assertive community treatment is an intensive and highly integrated approach for community mental health service delivery for individuals with serious mental illness.

INDIVIDUAL PLACEMENT & SUPPORT (IPS)
Individual placement and support is a model of supported employment for people with serious mental illness and helps people living with behavioral health conditions work at regular jobs of their choosing.

SUICIDE PREVENTION
Suicide is a serious public health problem in the United States. Suicide prevention includes strategies, approaches, programs, practices, and education that work to prevent suicide. Suicide prevention requires a comprehensive approach, and everyone has a role to play in suicide prevention.

PREVENTION
Prevention includes information dissemination; education; wellness promotion; organizing and enhancing community-based processes; developing environmental approaches; offering alternative activities; and building resiliency skills through structured learning, including support of critical life and social skills such as decision making, coping with stress, problem solving, interpersonal communication, and improving judgment.

FUNCTIONAL FAMILY THERAPY (FFT)
Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is a highly effective, research backed approach that strengthens families, reduces placement disruptions, and fosters long-term stability for youth in foster care, behavioral health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and adult services.

FIRST-EPISODE PSYCHOSIS (FEP)
First-episode psychosis (FEP) is an episode of mental illness where symptoms qualify for a psychosis and there has not been a psychotic episode before the index episode.
Meet the Team
The Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health is a multidisciplinary team of subject matter experts with specialized skills and knowledge in supporting, developing, and leading behavioral health services.
Torie Keith, LMSW
Program Manager
Falicia Beck, LMSW
Program Coordinator
Joanna Sabha
Program Coordinator
Mackenzie Blackhall
Behavioral Health Training Specialist
Heather Bopp
Behavioral Health Training Specialist
Michelle Johnston
Media Coordinator
Darcey Sebolt
IPS Trainer & Fidelity Reviewer
Mandy Hatten, CESP
IPS Trainer & Fidelity Reviewer
Dr. Nancy Williams, MD
ACT SME
Rebecca Onagoruwa, MPH
Prevention Training Specialist
Ambur Justeen-Peterson, MPH
Program Coordinator
Ann Dvorsky
Administrative Services Coordinator
Address
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
Center for Disabilities and Development
100 Hawkins Drive
Iowa City, IA 52242
