Since 2004, the Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care Illness Management and Recovery (UBHC-IMR) Training and Consultation Program has been assisting New Jersey behavioral health care organizations with their implementation of IMR. A SAMSHA and empirically supported evidence-based practice, IMR has evolved into a state recommended treatment intervention for adults living with mental illness. As noted by Mueser et al in their 2002 paper entitled "Illness Management and Recovery: A Review of the Research," IMR helps people to “…discover, or rediscover, their strengths and abilities for pursuing personal goals and (to) develop a sense of identity that allows them to grow beyond their mental illness.
Funded by the New Jersey Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), UBHC-IMR has helped facilitate the learning, implementation and sustainability of IMR in over 200 programs. To enhance the impact of the training experience, Rutgers UBHC and DMHAS encourages the development of agency-specific champion teams which create plans for IMR implementation within their programs.
Programs in the UBHC-IMR network have the opportunity to take part in advanced technical assistance activities, such as monthly roundtable consultation meetings, individual onsite or phone consultations, and supplementary trainings to enhance the use of IMR. For programs that are interested in enhancing their IMR services, a pilot model intervention entitled “IMR Regional Train-the-Trainer” became available to selected programs in 2015. This model trains agency teams to teach IMR to their fellow staff at their individual agencies. In addition, they receive support from a cross-county collaborative network of like-minded agency teams from across the behavioral health care continuum. For additional information, please feel free to contact us at (732) 235-5053 or at IMR@ubhc.rutgers.edu.