Welcome

Welcome to the October issue of Inside the Hub—your source for updates from the Northeast Atlantic and Caribbean Hub of the Center for Mental Health Implementation Support (CMHIS). In this issue, you’ll find an overview of how to meaningfully include people with lived experience to strengthen implementation efforts, along with a toolkit that offers step-by-step guidance. You can also explore our upcoming events and a snapshot of the technical assistance our team has been providing in the region.

Implementation Science Corner

Why Lived Experience Matters for Mental Health Programs

Engaging people with lived experience isn’t just a nice gesture or an optional checkbox. It is a core operational necessity that requires real-time care and skill to ensure the feedback is meaningful. When you partner with people with lived experience from day one, your mental health initiatives benefit in several critical ways:

Pinpointing Real Needs: They help identify what the community actually requires, rather than what administrators think they need.
Contextual Alignment: They ensure services respect and fit varied contexts.
Overcoming Obstacles: They spot practical barriers to care that others might easily miss.
Smarter Distribution: They guide how and where services are rolled out so they reach the people who need them most.
Meaningful Metrics: They help define what "success" actually looks like from the perspective of people who navigate and use these services.

By collaborating with people who have walked the path of mental health services in implementation planning, organizations bridge the gap between theory and reality. This ensures that new programs are practical, adopted more smoothly by the community, and built to last.

If your organization is looking to meaningfully integrate lived experience perspectives into your implementation efforts, our team is here to help. Reach out to learn more about technical assistance and resources to support your work. Contact us today!

Resource Spotlight

Lived Experience Toolkit

The success of mental health services depends on meaningfully engaging people with lived experience throughout the implementation process. Without their perspectives, even well-intentioned efforts can miss what matters most. The Northeast Atlantic and Caribbean Hub of CMHIS is pleased to share a new toolkit by Croft, Zechner, Wetengel, and Flint (2026), offering practical strategies to help organizations build authentic partnerships and design services that truly center the people they serve.

We’d love to support you in developing your implementation plan! Reach out to us here.

From the Field

Technical Assistance in Puerto Rico

Our team traveled to Puerto Rico to meet with organizations doing amazing work in their communities! We were welcomed by Administración de Servicios de Salud Mental y Contra la Adicción (ASSMCA), Centros de Apoyo Mutuo (CAM), University of Puerto Rico, CIMA Menonita Salud Mental, and the Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico, pictured above.

We were so impressed by everyone’s commitment to providing high quality behavioral health services. We’re excited to enhance our collaboration around preparing, implementing, and sustaining effective practices in Puerto Rico.

Learning Opportunities

We have one exciting upcoming event for our Hub!

This event is being offered to HHS Regions 1 & 2 – ME, VT, NH, MA, CT, NY, RI, NJ, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.

From Metrics to Mental Health: A Practical Guide to Implementing Measurement-Based Care
Tuesday, Nov. 10 & 17 2026 from 11 a.m.–noon ET
This two-part webinar series breaks down Measurement-Based Care into clear, actionable steps designed for immediate deployment across your mental health setting. Participants will walk away with concrete strategies to seamlessly integrate routine clinical tracking into their existing agency workflows without disrupting patient care.

Get to Know Our Team

Dr. Pamela Rothpletz-Puglia, EdD, RDN is fueled by a deep commitment to learning from others and driving meaningful, collaborative action in health science research, evaluation, and education. Her passion for mastering qualitative and mixed methods research reflects her belief that the most impactful insights come from those closest to the issues. As a professor at the Rutgers School of Health Professions and a CMHIS NEAC Hub member, she brings both the expertise of a seasoned nutrition practitioner and the insight of a dedicated academic.

Dr. Rothpletz-Puglia offers a perspective on community engagement in research, grounded in real-world experience and scholarly rigor. Please see her website for more information.

Stay Connected

We’d love to hear from you! Is there something you want us to cover in an upcoming newsletter? Send us your thoughts, stories, or feedback.

What to Expect Next Month

In November, you’ll receive the newsletter from CMHIS, with nationwide updates and highlights.

We’ll be back in December with more Hub news, stories, and insights. In the meantime, feel free to visit our website, send us an email, or follow us on LinkedIn.

Request Support

As part of the Center for Mental Health Implementation Support (CMHIS), the Northeast Atlantic and Caribbean Hub offers assistance to grantees funded by SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services and mental health service providers in HHS Regions

1 and 2, which include Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We can help you strengthen your mental health programs through community engagement, implementation planning, data use, outcome evaluation, and more. Please review our guidelines and submit a request.