The Enhanced Illness Management and Recovery (E-IMR) Implementation Project brings together the Northwest Addiction Technology Transfer Center (Northwest ATTC), Northwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (Northwest MHTTC), and the Behavioral Health Institute (BHI) at Harborview Medical Center in a co-sponsorship arrangement to enhance integrated services for mental illness and substance use. In this project, all three training entities are collaboratively supporting the work of E-IMR subject matter experts from the University of Minnesota Center for Practice Transformation (CPT) who are building E-IMR skills among practitioners at three community behavioral health organizations in Washington and one in Idaho.

Illness Management and Recovery (IMR) is an evidence-based practice with demonstrated outcomes in the areas of reducing psychiatric symptoms, hospitalizations and suicidal ideation while increasing employment leading to cost savings and other societal benefits. Investing time and resources in developing practitioner competency E-IMR, which focuses more specifically on co-occurring mental illness and substance use, will likely yield similar positive results. E-IMR is a manualized intervention, anchored in clients’ self-identified personal recovery goals, using strategies to enhance motivation, teach new information, and assist in behavioral change. It places clients’ wants and needs at the center of care while enhancing their illness management skills.

Collaborative co-sponsorship by the Northwest ATTC, Northwest MHTTC, and BHI supported skills-based training and ongoing consultation to this cohort of Washington and Idaho community behavioral healthcare providers. Sponsoring officials from Northwest ATTC (Bryan Hartzler, PhD), Northwest MHTTC (Maria Monroe-DeVita, PhD), and BHI (Jim Vollendroff, MPA, and Melody McKee, MS, SUDP) will be working with the University of Minnesota E-IMR subject matter experts and partnering behavioral health organizations to evaluate the impacts of these workforce development efforts at their completion.