The Partners

Founding members guide, support and connect

The Partnership for Integrated Care, comprised of InUnity Alliance and the New York State Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (NYSCCBH) will facilitate the implementation of integrated services, through training, technical assistance, and implementation assistance with best practices, while embracing the values of health equity and racial justice in New York.

The Partnership will maintain and uphold the values of person-centered rehabilitation and recovery while focusing on the needs of people throughout the life cycle, from birth to older adulthood. To do so, we will bring together a wide range of stakeholders, including peer advocates; public and private payers; behavioral health, physical, and social services providers; and an array of advocates, academics, investors, and vendors to identify multi-faceted solutions and disseminate them throughout New York State’s service provider community. InUnity Alliance and NYSCCBH will continue to work with together to recruit collaborators to ensure the Partnership’s base of support is as broad and deep as possible.

Originally, The Partnership for Integrated Care was co-founded in 2021 by the Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers of New York State (ASAP), The Coalition for Behavioral Health (Coalition), and the New York State Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (NYSCCBH).

InUnity Alliance

InUnity Alliance (IUA), a 501(c)-3, created by the merger of The Coalition for Behavioral Health (The Coalition) and Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers of New York State (ASAP), works to amplify the voices of people and organizations 
concerned about mental health and addiction issues in New York State. IUA represents 250 agencies that are big and small; rural, urban, and suburban; and provide addiction, mental health, health and social services to people of all ages. 
Through a lens of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging, IUA is committed to solving issues such as the workforce 
crisis, inadequate funding and reimbursement rates, gaps in service and the needs of underserved communities.

  • Amy Dorin, LCSW, has a 35 year career in the health and human service arena, working in government, hospitals, and in complex not-for-profit organizations as a clinician, administrator, executive, and consultant.

    Presently the President and CEO of the Coalition for Behavioral Health, the umbrella organization for 100 not- for -profit behavioral health agencies in the NY metropolitan area, Ms. Dorin’s previous position was as Senior Vice President for Community Behavioral Health at FEGS Health &Human Services. Responsible for an $60 million operating budget and a diverse staff of 800, she led a large network of mental health treatment and recovery programs, care coordination programs and Health Homes, and residential programs in the New York Metropolitan. Her Division served more than 25,000 people annually in communities in NYC, Nassau County, and Suffolk County.

    Previously, Ms. Dorin was Deputy Director for Health & Human Services for the NYC Mayor’s Office of Operations under Mayor Edward Koch; in this capacity, she oversaw the City’s health and human service agencies on behalf of the First Deputy Mayor, identifying problems, developing solutions to complex City operational problems, and coordinating responses for NYC on consent decrees and court orders. Retained by the Dinkins administration, she coordinated projects involving stemming the tuberculosis epidemic in NYC and the provision of health care in the City’s jail system.

    Ms. Dorin launched and served as Project Director for a model youth court diversion project for the Children’s Aid Society which resulted in new legislation in New York State; changing the approach of the Family Court to troubled youth, the new legislation positively impacted on many adolescents and their families.

    Among awards that she has received are: the 2015 Cognitive Remediation in Psychiatry Conference’s Science to Practice Award which acknowledged her leadership in mental health service and her contribution to the field of cognitive recovery; the 2013 award from the NYS Office of Mental Health’s Suicide Prevention Center to her Division at FEGS for having launched a comprehensive suicide prevention initiative; the 2002 award from Eli Lilly to her Division for Behavioral Health Leadership in Time of Disaster, following 9/11.

    Ms. Dorin is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.

New York State Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (NYSCCBH)

The New York State Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare (“The Council”) is an outcome-oriented statewide, non-profit, 501(c)(3) membership organization composed of 122 community-based organizations that provide recovery-focused mental health and/or substance abuse/chemical dependence and addiction treatment programs and services for New Yorkers in need.   NYS Council members offer a broad array of behavioral health services designed to meet the unique needs of children and adolescents, individuals and families seeking our assistance.   Our services are available in a variety of community settings including freestanding agencies, behavioral health divisions of general hospitals, and county mental hygiene programs.  The NYS Council provides our members with top quality government relations services and advocacy leadership that have resulted in many critical “wins” for providers and consumers over the past decade.  We deliver timely and accurate information and analysis on local, state, and federal budget and policy issues.  The NYS Council enjoys strong relationships with state leaders and we are well known in Albany and throughout the state as thoughtful partners who always act with integrity.

The mission of the NYS Council remains unchanged over the last 50 years. Our objective is to protect and enhance the availability of effective and efficient behavioral health programs and services that meet the unique needs of underserved individuals and families in their local communities.

  • Lauri Cole, MSW, is the Executive Director of the New York State Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, a position she has held since 2003. The NYS Council is a statewide membership association representing the interests of 120 community-based mental health and substance use/addiction prevention, treatment and recovery organizations including freestanding agencies, general hospitals, and local governmental units. The NYS Council provides training, technical assistance and government representation at the federal, state and local level for its members. In her role, Ms. Cole services as an advocate and lobbyist for underserved individuals and the organizations that serve them.

    At the state level, Lauri continually works with lead representatives from the State Department of Health, the Department of Financial Services, OASAS, OMH and members of the Executive and Legislative branches to bring new policy and programmatic initiatives and innovative reforms to the behavioral health service delivery system. She provides pragmatic advice to NYS Council members and assists organizations that are struggling with the constant state of change in our industry. Lauri is often called upon by state leaders for her views and opinions and is seen as an expert on matters including how to preserve and expand access to and continuity of care for vulnerable New Yorkers. Under Lauri’s leadership the NYS Council has led many successful efforts resulting in enacted budget language that seeks to preserve and enhance New York’s behavioral health continuum of care. She recently led a successful advocacy campaign that resulted in enacted legislation that puts in statute new requirements health plans and state agencies must follow related to timely and full payment of behavioral health providers, and that increases state surveillance, monitoring and enforcement activities in areas including network adequacy, continuity of care, rate adequacy and more.

    Ms. Cole received her Master’s in Social Welfare and also her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the State University of New York at Albany.

The Partnership for Integrated Care receives generous support from the New York Community Trust, The NYS Office of Mental Health (OMH) and The NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS).