Mental Health Education has extended its service region into five additional counties (Edgecombe, Nash, Wilson, Northampton and Halifax) for a total of 28 counties in our catchment area. In addition to providing continuing education for all mental health disciplines/professionals, Mental Health Education serves three multi-county Local Management Entities/Managed Care Organizations or LME/MCO's. Click here for a listing and four state residential facilities (Caswell Center, Cherry Hospital, O'Berry Neuro-Medical Treatment Center, Walter B. Jones Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Center (ADATC)). With the mergers of LME/MCO's, EAHEC, more than ever, continues to expand and enhance its partnerships and relationships with a wide variety of mental health, private provider and related agencies. EAHEC mental health activities fall into the following categories:

Undergraduate and Graduate Education - EAHEC supports off-campus rotations of medical students at the Brody School of Medicine at ECU for portions of their training in psychiatry, which exposes students to community-based programs. EAHEC also supports the rotation of residents from the Department of Psychiatric Medicine to community mental health facilities, hopefully interesting them in selecting such a practice setting after completing their residency training.

Continuing Education - This major focus includes numerous regional and on-site programs targeted at specific disability areas (adult, intellectual/developmental disabilities, substance abuse, and child/youth/family) as well as multi-disciplinary programming focused on assessment, treatment, and management issues. Four disability specific advisory committees and yearly comprehensive needs assessments ensures relevant training topics to meet mental health needs.

A minimum of four major annual conferences are offered each year. We provide an extensive assortment of basic, intermediate and advanced practice CE programs. These also reflect best practice and evidence-based curricula. All of our programs offer many types of continuing education credit to meet the certification, licensure, and on going training requirements for Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Professionals.

In addition to the collaborative partnership with the Department of Psychiatric Medicine, EAHEC has a highly collaborative relationship with the College of Human Ecology at ECU, which includes the following departments:

• Child Development and Family
  Relations
  
• Marriage and Family Therapy
  
• Criminal Justice
  
• School of Social Work