About this live event
Every year, millions of people who need treatment for a mental health or substance use condition never receive it, and the breakdown often happens exactly where it should be simplest: the referral. This session reframes the referral as a clinical and relational event, not an administrative afterthought. Moving from the internal (the stigma providers and peer support specialists carry) to the external (the workforce shortages, insurance gaps, and fragmented systems that block a warm handoff) to equity (who is most likely to fall through the cracks) to action (what actually works), participants will examine the evidence on cold referrals versus warm handoffs, see how the referral landscape has shifted, and leave with concrete tools — including Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), motivational interviewing at the point of referral, and bridge medications — to build referral relationships before they need them.
