Our National Center

Helping communities to improve care for people with complex needs

Attendees in conversation around a table at a Putting Care at the Center conference

Launched in 2016, our National Center for Complex Health and Social Needs initiative aims to improve the health and well-being for individuals with complex medical, psychological, and social needs.

It works to coalesce the emerging field of complex care by bringing together a broad range of clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and consumers who are developing, testing, and scaling new models of team-based, integrated care. Through our National Center initiative, we collaborate with other experts across the nation to develop best practices, inform policy, and foster an engaged and accessible community to develop this work and teach it to others.

There’s a growing recognition – coinciding with efforts to reform how we pay for care – that to see different results we must deliver care differently. Care must be flexible and centered on the needs, goals, and circumstances of the patient. It also must be based on evidence. This is the philosophy behind care for patients with complex health and social needs.

Organizations and individuals throughout the nation are actively working to improve the care of patients with complex needs through coordinated, data-driven, and patient-centered approaches – integrating traditional healthcare with behavioral healthcare and social services such as housing, transportation, and educational support. The National Center serves as a professional home for this diverse group, uniting and amplifying their efforts to improve care nationwide.

The National Center is an initiative of the Camden Coalition, and its founding sponsors are AARP, The Atlantic Philanthropies, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Explore our national complex care initiatives, sign up for our mailing list, or contact [email protected].