CFHA awards are intended to inspire and honor excellence in a variety of domains. They recognize those within the association whom demonstrate consistent and exceptionally high standards and achievements in promoting integrated care. Every award is intended to align with some element of the organization’s vision and mission.
Below please find a brief description of each award, as well as a link to a full description of the nomination and selection process for each.
We encourage our members to celebrate the contributions and achievements of their colleagues and friends. Nominations will be open from June 1st to June 30th.
Award Descriptions and Eligibility
Description of the Award:
This award has been the primary organizational award of significance since 2007, honoring one of the most influential and seminal founders of CFHA, Don Bloch, MD. The award recognizes an individual whose work and character exemplifies Don Bloch and thus advances the field of integrated care, regardless of career stage. The awardee should exemplify the following lauded and celebrated attributes of Don Bloch:
- Intellectual Qualities: Don was an innovative, articulate thinker. He was a brilliant, creative genius unencumbered by common parlance, routine use of language and the dictionary. He made up words like “duo-optic,” brought terms like “eco-systemic” from other disciplines into the field of integrated care. He was a big big picture guy who could articulate very complex concepts. His editorials in Family Systems Medicine are filled with excellent examples.
- Behavioral Qualities: Don was hard working, effective and productive. He was able to get things done. Director of Ackerman Institute, Editor of the journal Family Process, started the journal Family Systems Medicine (which eventually became Families, Systems and Health). Though Don had a long and storied career, and would want to acknowledge other’s hard work, the award should not be a lifetime achievement award. Don was the ultimate ‘talent scout.’ He could see potential and was able to nurture it and this award should be likewise not limited to those people with long and storied careers. Don would want to encourage youth, early career professionals, and even the rookies.
- Relational Qualities: Don was the ultimate connector. One evening he is at a cocktail party, has a conversation with the medical director in a clinic and virtually the next day, there are psychologists placed with physicians seeing patients simultaneously. He would have a conversation with someone and say something like, “I should have you talk to so and so (some VIP in family therapy)” and not a week later or the next day, but an hour later that person would get a phone call from this VIP. He had close personal relationships with people and fostered others to do the same.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Any current CFHA member in good standing, except for current board members or SIG Leadership, is eligible for this award.
- Individuals and organizations* are eligible for this award.
*At least one member of the organization must be a current CFHA member in good standing
Description of the Award:
This FHSIG-sponsored award recognizes clinicians and researchers who incorporate the principles of family-oriented care into their day-to-day work with families managing their health (prevention and intervention).
These principles can include:
- Collaborating with patients, families, and healthcare providers in program development, implementation, and evaluation, as well as the delivery of care,
- Sharing information that promotes family-provider communication during and aftercare,
- Families are encouraged and supported to participate in care and decision-making,
- Care in the context of family and community where medical care and decision-making is respectful and considers the patient in the context of his/her family and community, and
- Respecting cultural diversity while caring for families.
This award recognizes an individual, team, university, department, or clinic whose clinical work and/or program of research advances the field of family-oriented care in a seminal way and exemplifies at least two out of the five principles of family-oriented care described above, regardless of the nominee(s)’s stage of career.
Each year, one award will be presented at the CFHA conference. Note that we also reserve the right to not award it each year, if there are not any suitable nominees.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Any current CFHA member in good standing, except for current board members or SIG Leadership, is eligible for this award.
- Individuals and organizations* are eligible for this award.
*At least one member of the organization must be a current CFHA member in good standing
Description of the Award:
This award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to health care through their commitment and use of the Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model. Nominees have demonstrated their service to the PCBH model through education; training; supervision or mentoring students and colleagues; association governance, serving on boards, or committees; scholarly efforts; teaching; practice or practice management; advocating for PCBH’s best interests with state and federal lawmakers; and promoting the value of PCBH in the public eye. Nominees may be involved in one service area, many of the areas, or all of the service areas noted above. Further, nominees should embody and demonstrate values commensurate with CFHA’s overall mission of promoting comprehensive and cost-effective models of healthcare to deliver integrated care.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Any current CFHA member in good standing, except for current board members or SIG Leadership, is eligible for this award.
- Individuals and organizations* are eligible for this award.
*At least one member of the organization must be a current CFHA member in good standing
Description of the Award:
Over 20 years ago, 15 professionals from multiple disciplines gathered to discuss what healthcare delivery should look like for patients and families. It is because of their pioneering spirits that we now benefit from an interdisciplinary, collaborative family healthcare model. These 15 founders have been instrumental to the development and future of the field as demonstrated by their continuous support and mentorship of young collaborators. In their honor, the annual CFHA Founders’ ECP Award serves as the highest recognition for an early career professional’s contributions to the field of integrated care. The recipient, like CFHA’s founders, is someone who:
- Embraces the utilization of collaborative techniques and the biopsychosocial model in patient care – whether in a clinical, teaching, research or administrative role,
- Is thoughtful about the future of integrated models of care and establishing sustainable models,
- Demonstrates strong collaboration as evidenced by professional interactions with others across disciplines,
- Emphasizes family in his or her work, and
- Fosters a sense of innovation as he or she strives to exemplify the goals of CFHA.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Any current ECP member of CFHA in good standing is eligible. Only individuals are eligible for this award – not organizations.
- Specifically, the award is given to an early career professional who has: 1) completed their professional training within the last 3 years, 2) is new to the field of collaborative care, and 3) shows promise in their early career in their ability to support sustainable models of interdisciplinary care for patients, families, and communities.
- CFHA recommends that ECPs define themselves based on the guidelines of their respective profession, with a minimum that all applicants have attained their professional degree within the last 3 years.
- The ECP may work in clinical, educational, and advocacy initiatives (or a combination of these) that promote the mission of CFHA.
Description of the Award:
This award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to health care through their commitment and use of the Collaborative Care (CoCM) model. Nominees have demonstrated their service to the CoCM model through education; training; supervision or mentoring students and colleagues; association governance, serving on boards, or committees; scholarly efforts; teaching; practice or practice management; advocating for CoCM’s best interests with state and federal lawmakers; and promoting the value of CoCM in the public eye. Nominees may be involved in one service area, many of the areas, or all service areas noted above. Further, nominees should embody and demonstrate values commensurate with CFHA’s overall mission of promoting comprehensive and cost-effective models of healthcare to deliver integrated care.
Eligibility Criteria:
- Any current CFHA member in good standing, except for current board members or SIG Leadership, is eligible for this award.
- Individuals and organizations* are eligible for this award.
*At least one member of the organization must be a current CFHA member in good standing
Description of the Award:
This award recognizes individuals, teams, and organizations who have made outstanding contributions to pediatric behavioral health care through their commitment to improving youth health under a holistic, integrated, and equitable lens. Nominees have demonstrated their service in one or more of the following areas: the development and dissemination of research and education, the promotion of innovative approaches, the applications of equity principles to the provision of high-quality care, and the engagement in mentoring and advocacy efforts regarding pediatric integrated behavioral health care.
Eligibility Criteria:
Any current CFHA member in good standing, except for current board members or SIG Leadership, is eligible for this award.
Individuals and organizations* are eligible for this award.
*At least one member of the organization must be a current CFHA member in good standing
Award criteria for all awards:
Process for Nominations:
- Nominations open June 1st and close June 30th each year.
- A call for nominations will be sent out in the CFHA Newsletter, Listserv, and social media channels by CFHA staff and SIG leadership when applicable.
- Nominations must come from the membership-at-large, and self-nominations will be accepted for all awards. Board members and SIG leadership are not eligible to participate in the nomination process.
- A nomination consists of a 1000-word or less statement that describes why this person, organization, or team is uniquely qualified for an award using the form below.
Selection Process:
- Nominations are submitted to SIG Leadership for review and/or the Board for approval to certify the nominees are eligible for selection.
- After viewing each statement of nomination, all current CFHA members may vote for their selection (or abstain from voting if they choose to do so).
- After the voting is complete, one nominee for each award will be submitted to the Board of Directors for final endorsement (no specific scoring process will be used in this final selection process completed by the Board)
- If there is not a nomination for an award submitted between June 1st and June 30th, that award will not be given that year.
Notification to Awardee:
- The nominator and awardee will be notified in August by the CFHA BOD president or staff, ahead of the 2023 conference where the awardee will be publicly acknowledged. Awardees will receive:
- a plaque or gift
- 50% off conference registration the following year (2024) – This discount is not transferable to another year.
- Recognition on the website, conference app, and signage at the conference
- The awardee will be made aware of who nominated them for the award.
Award to Be Conferred When:
- To be conferred at the annual conference, the specific time to be determined by the conference committee and staff for that year.
Nomination Form
Nominations are now closed.