Community partnerships are critical to the translation of new health treatments and interventions into every day life. You can find some examples of CCTS's ongoing partnerships here, as well as resources to help establish your own community ties.
National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) Chicago Heading link
The CCTS Community Engagement and Collaboration Core (CEC) has partnered with the National Alliance of Mental Illness in response to mental health ramifications of COVID-19.
The first step in the collaboration was to help analyze data trends from NAMI-Chicago’s helpline between November 1, 2018 to April 30, 2020. CEC research specialists help determine the number of unique callers, call types, and rates of calls. They also examined how the COVID-19 pandemic and social issues, like the killing of George Floyd, impacted call volumes and types.
The CEC continues to identify these and other metrics for NAMI’s weekly and monthly call data dashboards. They have also assisted in producing a quarterly report on the NAMI Chicago website.
More recently, CEC is collaborating with NAMI and the Chicago Police Department on the implementation and evaluation of diversion work, specifically in regard to the reallocation of resources from police departments to mental health services.
NAMI Partnership on our Podcast Heading link
CCTS’s Dr. Marc Atkins, Grace Cua and NAMI Chicago Chief Integration Officer, Jim Poole, contribute to this episode about how the request to examine helpline data to better serve the mental health needs of the Chicago community as well as reduce burnout among call center staff.