The National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services works to improve mental health outcomes for children, youth, and families impacted by child welfare involvement. Our mission is to bridge the gap between child welfare and mental health systems by expanding adoption competent services across States, Tribes, and territories (STTs).

Building on a decade of work through the National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI), the National Center offers targeted technical assistance and professional learning opportunities that prepare mental health providers to meet the unique needs of children and families formed through foster care, adoption, and guardianship.

The NTI MHP Learning Communities are a coaching offering for STTs partnering with the National Center to expand the professional workforce and increase the accessibility of adoption competent mental health providers. These Learning Communities are based on the Learning Collaborative Model and Transfer of Learning activities such as coaching, peer teach-back, and clinical consultation. The development of site-specific and cross-state Learning Communities provides mental health professionals with peer support, accountability methods that foster skill-building, and ongoing learning opportunities that expand clinical experience and resource awareness.

Vision

NTI Coaching for Mental Health Professionals (MHPs) provides three main categories of services and supports States, Tribes, and Territories (STTs) in the effort to increase the accessibility of adoption and permanency-competent treatment providers:

• STT-specific clinical learning community cohorts comprised of mental health professionals, facilitated by a licensed adoption-competent treatment provider and trainer, eligible for additional continuing education units, and supports completion of NTI.
• The Coach-in-training model is available to MHPs who are supervisors, training and education leaders, or those who want to advance their clinical coaching and facilitation skillset.
• Monthly drop-in sessions with relevant topics are available to participants who have completed a learning community series and/or who have already completed NTI.

Values

Our values are grounded in principles that are crucial to the clinically focused practice of working with kinship and non-kin families formed by foster care, adoption, and guardianship. These values guide how we support professionals and families:

• Using an attachment-focused, trauma-informed, loss and grief, and culturally respectful approach with diverse populations.
• Ensuring that MHPs are aware of the complex and evolving needs of families formed by adoption, kinship, guardianship that require continuous professional development and education. 
• Including and elevating the perspectives of those with lived experiences and cultural considerations in all learning activities

Commitments

The National Center offers these commitments to our Partner Sites:

• Collaboration and communication with STT mental health and child welfare leadership in order to understand the climate, experience and needs of their communities and the youth and families who have interfaced with these systems, as well as the exposure and current resources to adoption-competent & trauma-informed services and providers.
• Transparency and integrity in the way we support and listen to each other and respond throughout the development and collaborative facilitation of sustainable learning communities.
• Continuing Partnership in developing ongoing clinical learning communities to support advancement of adoption and permanency competency and practices, building up and equipping leaders as experts within their own communities.

The National Center requests these commitments from our Partner Sites:

• Protected professional development time for participants to actively engage in learning cohort activities.
• Collaboration and engagement in the selection of MH liaisons, their ongoing communications, and meeting attendance by MH and other relevant leadership as determined by the Intensive TA workplan.
• Provide details such as identifying the audience of MHP who will be engaging in the learning communities and clarifying the agreements of MH leadership to promote engagement and support with the registration and evaluation processes.
• Encouragement and facilitation of the development and sustainability of learning communities in striving to meet the overall goal of increasing accessibility to adoption-competent and permanency-focused mental health treatment providers.