Dr. Michael Cummings has over 15 years of experience treating children, adolescents, and adults for all major psychiatric conditions and developmental challenges in a wide array of community and institutional settings. He currently serves as Vice Chair of Community Affairs and Outreach for the Department of Psychiatry of the University at Buffalo, Associate Medical Director of Erie County Medical Center, and Medical Director of NYSTART (Regions 1, 2 and 4). In addition to his clinical and administrative work, his major focus is on developing and integrating systems of care for individuals with mental illness and developmental disabilities who are at high risk of avoidable hospitalization or incarceration. To this end, Dr. Cummings, along with his clinical partner Janell Van Cleve, has created a project entitled “APIC: Access to Psychiatry Through Intermediate Care.” It is a 1.8 million dollar grant-funded pilot program sponsored for five years by the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower, John R. Oishei, Patrick P. Lee, and the Margaret L. Wendt Foundations that provides mobile psychiatric interventions and case management for children, adolescents, and adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities whose needs are not being met by the current system of care. Its primary goal is to reduce avoidable emergency room visits, hospitalizations, arrests, out of home placements, and exposure to unnecessary poly-pharmacy. Dr. Cummings and his team are actively working to be able to provide this unique and innovative program to families in need across the entire State of New York.