Mid Shore Behavioral Health, Inc. Hosted a Successful SIM Conference Addressing Youth and the Juvenile Justice System

Keynote Speaker, Keith Bratley, presenting to a large audience

Mid Shore Behavioral Health, Inc. (MSBH) held a successful 9th Annual Sequential Intercept Mapping (SIM) Model Conference in Cambridge, MD on Friday, February 3rd, 2023, with the theme of Youth and Juvenile Justice. Unlike most conferences, the SIM conference serves as a strategic planning tool involving the community to help identify gaps and barriers along a continuum of intercepts. In order, the intercepts are Community Services, Law Enforcement, Initial Court Hearings/Detention, Jail/Court, Reentry, and Community Corrections. Conference attendees participated in breakout sessions for each intercept to discuss how people with behavioral health diagnoses enter and move through the criminal justice system in the mid-shore. Once points of contact are assessed, ways to prevent or minimize contact and find treatment can be identified.

Large group of panelists sitting along a rectangular table in front of audience members

Katie Dilley, Executive Director, reflected, “The SIM Conference is a wonderful opportunity to connect with our partners and providers serving the community to address diversion from the criminal justice system, enhance relationships, and identify opportunities to develop new programming and services in the region. The SIM Conference has served as an avenue for our region to come together annually to look at new developments and populations in need for the region. With this year’s focus on the Juvenile Justice System, the Juvenile Justice Reform bill and impact was top of discussion for the group. The ability to reconvene in-person was such a gift and added to the experience and engagement of the day. The leadership of MSBH’s team in cultivating an outstanding group of speakers and many with lived experiences, made for a day full of new insights, connections, and perspectives.”

MSBH Team member, Audra Cherbonnier, facilitating the breakout room for intercepts 0 and 1

The  conference was held at the Chesapeake Grove Intergenerational Center and included over 100 attendees made up of community members, formerly incarcerated persons, criminal justice professionals, behavioral health care providers, and more. Keynote speakers offered personal testimony and experiences with the juvenile justice system. Discussions from the breakout sessions will be used to inform behavioral health planning for the region. 

Keynote speaker, William Edward Johnson III, said, “The most important resource of every agency are the people that show up every day and do the work.” The SIM Conference is for people at every level of behavioral health and criminal justice system, and is a celebration of the work as much as it is a place to gather community members to create change. 

Please mark your calendars for the 10th Annual SIM Conference scheduled for Friday, November 3rd, 2023. 

As the Core Service Agency for the mid-shore region, MSBH’s mission is to continually improve the provision of behavioral health services for residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne's, and Talbot Counties through effective coordination of care in collaboration with consumers, their natural support systems, providers, and the community at large. For more information about MSBH, visit www.midshorebehavioralhealth.org.