County of Sonoma
THREADS 2026 › Agenda › Continuing Education at THREADS 2026

Continuing Education at THREADS 2026

THREADS 2026 is pleased to offer continuing education (CE) credit for three select symposium sessions held on day 2, Tuesday November 17th. These courses are designed to provide practical, relevant learning opportunities for behavioral health and allied professionals while highlighting innovative approaches, emerging practices, and real-world implementation across systems.

Each CE-eligible session below includes course details, learning objectives, presenter information, schedule, and continuing education requirements. Participants seeking CE credit should review the individual course information carefully and complete all attendance and evaluation requirements associated with the session.

Continuing education credit is available only for sessions specifically identified as CE-eligible.

All THREADS attendees are welcome to attend these sessions (within room capacity); no pre-registration is required.

From Transitional Rent to Lasting Stability

Day 2 from 1:00-1:50pm

Session Description

Explore how Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) Housing Supports and the Behavioral Health Services Flexible Housing Pool pilot are transforming access, housing stability, and outcomes for vulnerable residents.

Through a dynamic panel discussion, presenters will share San Diego County’s real-world implementation of braided BHSA and Medi-Cal funding, including Transitional Rent, cross-system referral and authorization workflows, flexible funding strategies, and collaboration among county behavioral health, managed care plans, housing partners, and program administrators.

Participants will hear practical examples of how planning is translated into operational workflows and how partners can structure funding and responsibilities to support housing stability beyond the initial Transitional Rent period.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

  1. Map at least two referral pathways into Transitional Rent across permanent and interim housing placements and identify at least three decision points for coordination between the County and Managed Care Plans (MCPs).
  2. Differentiate funding rules and sequencing requirements between Medi-Cal Community Supports, including the Housing Trio and Transitional Rent, and BHSA Housing Interventions in order to support compliance and maximize available resources.
  3. Apply at least three braided-funding strategies to design or refine a Flexible Housing Pool workflow that aligns MOAs/SOWs with Housing First principles, clarifies partner roles, and streamlines eligibility and authorization processes.

Target Audience

This session is intended for behavioral health professionals and leaders, community-based organizations, healthcare and managed care representatives, housing and homelessness service providers, program administrators, and other professionals involved in the planning, funding, coordination, or delivery of behavioral health and housing services.

Session Schedule

Total Session Length: 50 minutes

  • Welcome and Overview – 5 minutes
    • Introduction of presenters and session objectives
    • Connection to the THREADS 2026 themes of implementation, braided funding, and cross-sector collaboration
  • Understanding Transitional Rent Pathways – 5 minutes
    • Referral pathways across permanent and interim placements
    • County and Managed Care Plan coordination points
  • Funding Structures and Sequencing Requirements – 10 minutes
    • Medi-Cal Community Supports: Housing Trio and Transitional Rent
    • BHSA Housing Interventions
    • Compliance, sequencing, and funding optimization
  • Designing an Effective Flexible Housing Pool Workflow – 10 minutes
    • Aligning MOAs/SOWs with Housing First principles
    • Defining responsibilities among counties, MCPs, and housing administrators
    • Eligibility, authorization, and coordination workflows
  • Braided Funding Applications and Sustainability Models – 10 minutes
    • Strategies for scaling operational subsidies
    • Supporting housing stability beyond the six-month Transitional Rent period
  • Q&A and Discussion – 10 minutes
    • Audience questions
    • Real-world implementation examples and problem-solving

All 50 minutes are part of the educational program and are eligible for CE credit.

Presenters

Brenda Sarabia, DSW, LCSW
Deputy Director, Housing & Homelessness Services
County of San Diego Behavioral Health Services

Dr. Brenda Sarabia is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and behavioral health executive with more than 15 years of experience in behavioral health systems, program development, housing and homelessness services, strategic planning, contracting, compliance, and cross-system collaboration. As Deputy Director with San Diego County Behavioral Health Services, she oversees clinical and administrative programs and supports the development and implementation of behavioral health and housing initiatives. Dr. Sarabia earned her Doctor of Social Work and Master of Social Work degrees from the University of Southern California.

Heather Summers
Deputy Director
County of San Diego Health & Human Services Agency
Presenter bio coming soon

Jessica Delaney, PMP®
Program Manager, CalAIM
Blue Shield of California - Promise Health Plan

Jessica Delaney, PMP® develops and implements housing solutions for Medi-Cal members experiencing homelessness. She spent the first decade of her career helping individuals and families with complex needs secure and maintain housing across Northern California, followed by leadership roles coordinating Continuums of Care across nine California counties. Over the past decade, Jessica has focused on performance improvement initiatives within California managed care plans and currently leads efforts at Blue Shield Promise to expand housing opportunities and demonstrate their connection to improved health outcomes in San Diego and Los Angeles. She notes, “Homelessness is more than a housing crisis. It is a health crisis. And when housing is the root cause, housing is the solution.”

Continuing Education Information

  • CE Hours: .75
  • The Sonoma County Behavioral Health Division is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, and LPCCs. Sonoma County Behavioral Health Division maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. CAMFT Provider Number 135030. Exp. 02/01/2027.
  • This course has been approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, B.R.N. Provider No. 10298, expires 5/31/2028.
  • Provider approved by CCAPP-EI, Provider Number 4N-05-565-1122, for .75 CE(s).

Course Completion and Certificates

Participants must attend the full session to receive continuing education credit. Certificates of completion will be distributed upon signing out of the session.

Cost

Free! There is no additional cost for continuing education credits during THREADS.

Accessibility, Cancellations, and Grievances

What if Exit from Services Wasn’t an Option?

Day 2 from 2-2:50pm

Session Description

Many service systems rely on involuntary exits to manage conflict, behavioral concerns, and perceived risk. This interactive workshop examines the policies and practices that can unintentionally drive exclusion and explores practical, repair-based approaches that support continued access, accountability, and safety.

Participants will analyze common policies and practices that lead to service exits, explore the difference between discomfort, risk, and true safety concerns, and consider low-barrier and trauma-informed alternatives that allow programs to remain engaged with individuals through challenging situations.

Through interactive polling, facilitated reflection, and group discussion, participants will examine how removal can reinforce distrust and make reentry more difficult, while identifying repair-focused strategies such as collaborative problem-solving, de-escalation, temporary space, and repair conversations. Participants will leave with at least one concrete policy or practice change they can explore within their own organization.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

  1. Identify 3 common policies and practices that contribute to involuntary exits from services.
  2. Distinguish between discomfort, risk, and safety concerns when evaluating whether continued engagement is appropriate.
  3. Develop repair-based alternatives that support continued engagement following conflict or harm.
  4. Identify at least one actionable policy or practice change to explore within their own organization.

Target Audience

This session is intended for behavioral health professionals, housing and homelessness service providers, community-based organizations, program administrators, frontline staff, supervisors, and other professionals responsible for developing or implementing policies related to participant engagement, safety, behavioral expectations, program access, and service retention.

Session Schedule

Total Session Length: 50 minutes

  • Welcome, Objectives, and Brave Space – 5 minutes
    • Introduction to the session objectives
    • Establishing a framework for open discussion and reflection
  • Mentimeter Activity: Exit Rules in Our Programs – 5 minutes
    • Interactive reflection on policies and practices that lead to service exits
    • Identifying common approaches across programs
  • Why Systems Default to Removal – 5 minutes
    • Safety concerns, liability, staff capacity, and policy pressures
    • Examining how removal can reinforce distrust and create barriers to reentry
  • Safety, Discomfort, and Risk Assessment – 5 minutes
    • Distinguishing between safe, uncomfortable, unsafe, and dangerous situations
    • Examining how perceptions of risk influence program responses
  • What If Exit Wasn’t an Option? – 10 minutes
    • Exploring responses to conflict and harm that prioritize continued engagement
    • Considering the conditions that contributed to harm and what is needed for repair
  • Repair-Based Alternatives and Staying Engaged Through Harm – 10 minutes
    • Collaborative problem-solving
    • De-escalation before enforcement
    • Creating temporary space to work through next steps
    • Repair conversations in place of automatic warnings or exits
  • Revisiting the Rules: Identifying Opportunities for Change – 5 minutes
    • Reviewing existing program rules through a safety and engagement lens
    • Identifying policies that may be candidates for change
  • Commitment Activity, Resources, and Closing – 5 minutes
    • Identifying one exit-related rule or practice participants are prepared to reconsider
    • Resources and closing remarks

All 50 minutes are part of the educational program and are eligible for CE credit.

Presenter

Sage Wolf, MSW
Director of Integrated Health, Redwood Community Services
Founder & Principal Consultant, Wolf Strategies

Sage Wolf, MSW, is an experienced systems leader with more than 20 years of experience across integrated health, behavioral health, housing, homelessness response, and community-based service systems. Their work focuses on collaboration, harm reduction, trauma-informed practice, low-barrier care, and translating frontline experience into practical systems change.

As Director of Integrated Health at Redwood Community Services, Sage leads integrated health programs across three rural counties and works to strengthen coordination among behavioral health, medical providers, housing programs, law enforcement, and community partners. Sage previously led homelessness and housing programs across rural Northern California and has extensive experience in coordinated entry, care coordination, program design, implementation, evaluation, and cross-system collaboration.

Through Wolf Strategies, Sage provides systems-transformation and equity-centered consulting focused on low-barrier and harm-reduction practice, including development of access-oriented frameworks, workflows, trainings, and implementation tools. Sage holds a Master of Social Work from California State University, Chico.

Continuing Education Information

  • CE Hours: .75
  • The Sonoma County Behavioral Health Division is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, and LPCCs. Sonoma County Behavioral Health Division maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. CAMFT Provider Number 135030. Exp. 02/01/2027.
  • This course has been approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, B.R.N. Provider No. 10298, expires 5/31/2028.
  • Provider approved by CCAPP-EI, Provider Number 4N-05-565-1122, for .75 CE(s).

Course Completion and Certificates

Participants must attend the full session to receive continuing education credit. Certificates of completion will be distributed upon signing out of the session.

Cost

Free! There is no additional cost for continuing education credits during THREADS.

Accessibility, Cancellations, and Grievances

Rural Crisis Response: A Blended Model

Day 2 from 3:00-3:50pm

Session Description

Rural communities face unique challenges in building effective behavioral health crisis-response systems, including limited resources, geographic barriers, workforce constraints, and the need for strong collaboration across behavioral health, law enforcement, and community partners.

This session examines the development and evolution of crisis response in Eureka and Humboldt County through a blended model that incorporates behavioral health alternative response, law-enforcement co-response, multidisciplinary outreach, and community partnership.

Presenters will share the history and development of Eureka’s Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET) and Crisis Alternative Response of Eureka (CARE), discuss how crisis-response approaches have evolved over time, and explore practical strategies for creating flexible teams that reflect the realities of rural communities. Particular attention will be given to shifting organizational culture between behavioral health and law enforcement, building effective cross-system relationships, and applying lessons learned to other communities.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

  1. List at least two ways that creating a flexible crisis-response team can support the behavioral health needs of a rural community.
  2. Identify at least one mechanism for shifting culture within law enforcement and behavioral health systems to promote effective collaboration.
  3. Identify at least one reason networking is critical to successful rural crisis response and name three agencies or organizations in their own community with which they intend to strengthen or establish relationships following the conference.

Target Audience

This session is designed for behavioral health professionals, mobile crisis and crisis-response staff, law-enforcement personnel and leaders, healthcare and emergency-response partners, local government and program administrators, community-based organizations, homelessness and outreach providers, and other professionals involved in developing or coordinating community behavioral health crisis systems.

Session Schedule

Approved Session Length: Approximately 50 minutes

  • Introductions & Humboldt County Data – 5 minutes
    • Introduction of presenters
    • Overview of the rural crisis-response environment and session objectives
    • Community context and behavioral health/crisis-response considerations
  • Eureka Data – 5 minutes
    • Local crisis-response experience and service context
  • History and Development – 5 minutes
    • Evolution of the local crisis-response model
    • Development of partnerships across systems
  • CSET and CARE – 5 minutes
    • Community Safety Engagement Team
    • Crisis Alternative Response of Eureka
    • Blending outreach, behavioral health response, co-response, and alternative response
  • Evolution of Crisis Response – 5 minutes
    • How the local model has changed over time
    • Developing flexible approaches for rural communities
  • Shifting Cultures in Law Enforcement and Behavioral Health – 10 minutes
    • Strategies for strengthening collaboration
    • Building understanding across professional disciplines
    • Organizational and cultural change
  • Lessons Learned – 5 minutes
    • Challenges and successes
    • Importance of relationships, networking, and community partnerships
    • Considerations for replication in other rural communities
  • Questions and Discussion – 10 minutes
    • Audience questions
    • Discussion of practical application within participants’ own communities

All 50 minutes are part of the educational program and are eligible for CE credit.

Presenters

Jacob Rosen, MA, LMFT
Managing Mental Health Clinician
Crisis Alternative Response of Eureka (CARE), City of Eureka
California LMFT #107103

Jacob Rosen is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and crisis-response program leader with experience in psychiatric inpatient care, emergency-department assessment, mobile crisis, crisis negotiation, clinical supervision, and behavioral health–law enforcement collaboration. As Managing Mental Health Clinician for the City of Eureka, Rosen developed the Crisis Alternative Response of Eureka (CARE) program and leads a team providing crisis services seven days per week through both law-enforcement co-response and alternative response without officers when appropriate. His work includes direct crisis assessment and intervention, clinical supervision, program management, de-escalation and 5150 training, community collaboration, and crisis-system development. Rosen also serves on the Humboldt County Crisis Negotiations Team and coordinates Humboldt County Crisis Intervention Team training and collaboration among law enforcement, behavioral health, and community partners. He holds a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Humboldt State University.

Leonard E. La France, M.S.
Commander, Patrol Division
Eureka Police Department

Commander Leonard La France is a law-enforcement leader with nearly 19 years of experience in patrol operations, leadership, training, crisis intervention, behavioral health response, and community engagement. He currently serves as Patrol Commander with the Eureka Police Department and develops and delivers training in de-escalation, communication, behavioral health response, crisis intervention, and California mental health law. He also co-coordinates a 40-hour Crisis Intervention Training program for law-enforcement personnel and community partners. Commander La France founded Eureka’s Community Safety Engagement Team (CSET) in 2018 to improve multidisciplinary responses to homelessness, mental illness, substance-use disorders, and high-utilizer populations and was instrumental in the development of the City’s CARE mobile behavioral-health crisis-response program. He holds a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice Management.

Continuing Education Information

  • CE Hours: 50 min
  • The Sonoma County Behavioral Health Division is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, and LPCCs. Sonoma County Behavioral Health Division maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. CAMFT Provider Number 135030. Exp. 02/01/2027.
  • This course has been approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, B.R.N. Provider No. 10298, expires 5/31/2028.
  • Provider approved by CCAPP-EI, Provider Number 4N-05-565-1122, for 50 min.

Course Completion and Certificates

Participants must attend the full session to receive continuing education credit. Certificates of completion will be distributed upon signing out of the session.

Cost

Free! There is no additional cost for continuing education credits during THREADS.

Accessibility, Cancellations, and Grievances