DECEMBER 2024

Technical Assistance Updates

The National Center provides tailored support in a hands-on, collaborative partnership with six States, Tribes, and territories each year to improve mental health outcomes for children and families who have experienced child welfare. The TA team works directly with child-serving systems to enhance the competence of the behavioral health workforce through training, building cross-system collaboration, and increasing access to adoption competent mental health services for children and families in child welfare. 

The National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services is actively engaged in Intensive Technical Assistance with Oklahoma and Illinois. Oklahoma has co-developed its TA plan and is currently implementing strategies to embed adoption competency training into curriculums. The State is also considering developing opportunities for families to identify adoption competent providers through links to provider directories. Illinois is in the process of developing its TA workplan and has a desire to focus on expanding the adoption competent workforce by including non-traditional providers such as medical, educational, and those with lived experience. Teams from both States are comprised of people with lived experience, and they are working to increase adoption competency and improve access to mental health services through collaboration and intentional TA activities.

As our work in these States continues, we are also in productive conversation with Rhode Island and the Navajo Nation and anticipate that they will be the next jurisdictions to participate in intensive TA. This work is groundbreaking, and we continue outreach and engagement with States, Tribes, and territories with the intention of advancing adoption competent mental health services across the nation to positively impact the mental health of children, youth, and families impacted by the child welfare system. Please reach out to the National Center Director Mary Wichansky, or visit our webpage for updated information. 

Lived Experience Voices

A key component of the work of the National Center is our commitment to use lived experience to inform our work. We will integrate lived experience into our understanding of the current strengths and challenges of systems as well as drive sustainable changes that work for all families.  

The National Center Knowledge Hub is designed to mobilize knowledge into practice to improve child welfare and mental health systems. We add resources and new learning experiences to this Knowledge Hub on an ongoing basis. 

Webinar: Building Cross-System Collaborations

In November, the National Center team presented a webinar to the NICWA membership about how we can collaborate with Tribal Nations to increase access to child welfare competent mental health services and improve mental health outcomes for children and families. Watch the replay to learn more!

Understanding the Complex Mental Health Needs of Children in Child Welfare

Last month, the National Center hosted a live webinar with Laura Ornelas, Director of C.A.S.E. Academy, about providing adoption competent care to children and families who have faced abuse, neglect, trauma, and loss. Watch the recording to learn about integrating adoption competent principles into your practice!

140 of your colleagues joined the webinar, and here is what some of them shared about what was most valuable to them:

"It provided a new lens for looking at complex needs".

"The emphasis on mental health care and past experiences/trauma the children have gone through.”

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