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Knowledge Hub

You have found the “go-to” repository of knowledge, best practices, models of intervention, and evidence-informed services to build the capacity of States, Tribes, territories, child welfare, and mental health professionals to offer comprehensive adoption competent mental health services. This hub is dynamic and will be regularly updated to align with your informational needs.

Access to Mental Health Services

92
  • 2023 State Legislation Issue Brief Series: Trends in State Policy: Youth Mental Health
  • A Family-Based Mental Health Navigator Intervention for Youth in the Child Welfare System: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial
  • A human-centered vision for improving the mental health care ecosystem
  • A National Agenda for Children’s Mental Health
  • Access to Care Ranking 2024
  • Acute Care Children’s Hospital Survey
  • Advancing mental health parity to ensure children’s access to care
  • Arizona Mercy Care
  • Behavioral Health in Colorado: Putting People First
  • Behavioral Health Services Outcomes That Matter Most to Caregivers of Children, Youth, and Young Adults with Mental Health Needs
  • Blueprint for Transformation: A Vision for Improved Behavioral Health Care for Illinois Children
  • Care at Home for Children​ with Serious Emotional Disorders
  • Caring for Each Other: What it Takes to Promote Mental Health and Well-Being
  • Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs)
  • Childhood Trust Events Survey and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
  • Children’s Services: Mississippi Department of Mental Health
  • Children’s Mental Health: Chapter Action Kit
  • Colorado’s I Matter Program-Youth Mental Health
  • Connecticut Plan 4 Children
  • Creating Mental Health Connections for Children and Youth in Foster Care
  • Developing an innovative pediatric integrated mental health care program: interdisciplinary team successes and challenges
  • Does mental health screening and assessment in child welfare improve mental health service receipt, child safety, and permanence for children in out-of-home care? An evaluation of the Gateway CALL demonstration
  • Enforcing Mental Health Parity: State Options to Improve Access to Care
  • Exploring Barriers to Mental Health Care in the U.S.
  • Exploring Barriers to Mental Health Care in the US
  • Facilitating a Referral for Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families
  • Facilitating Mental Health Service Use for Caregivers: Referral Strategies among Child Welfare Caseworkers
  • Foster Youth and Alumni Priorities on Mental Health
  • Healthy Outcomes: Key takeaways from the 2024 National Council for Mental Wellbeing Conference
  • Helping Children Thrive: Strategies to Support Children’s Mental Health
  • HHS Hub About Telehealth
  • How can child protection agencies use telehealth to increase service access for children and families?
  • Improving Access to Children’s Mental Health
  • Improving Access to Mental Health Services in Low-Income Communities
  • Increasing Access to Behavioral Health Services: Opportunities at the State and Federal Level
  • Leveraging telehealth to provide equitable pediatric mental health care
  • Many States Face Shortage of Mental Health Providers
  • Many States Face Shortage of Mental Health Providers
  • McIntyre v. Howard, Progress of Kansas Department of Children and Families, Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services, and Kansas Department of Health and Environment (January 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023)
  • Mental Health Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs)
  • Mental Health Promotion and Prevention
  • Mental Health Screening
  • National Needs Assessment: Mental Health Services for People with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities
  • National Rural Adolescent and Child Health (NRACH) ECHO Training Center
  • Over one-third of Americans live in areas lacking mental health professionals
  • Overview of the Behavioral Health System in the United States
  • Pediatric Mental Health Care Access Program
  • Prevalence and Characteristics of Children Entering Foster Care to Receive Behavioral Health or Disability Services
  • Project Aware: school-based mental health program
  • Promoting Mental Health and Well-Being in Schools
  • Proportion of US Counties and Population Served by Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics
  • Protecting Youth Mental Health: Part II–Identifying and Addressing Barriers to Care
  • Raise the Bar for Children’s Mental Health: Strategies to Sustain Innovation and Access to School-based Services
  • Redesigning Medicaid: The Key to Solving Our Children’s Mental Health Crisis
  • Right Help, Right Now Program 1-year Update
  • Social Determinants of Health in Rural Communities Toolkit
  • State Policies that Impact the Design of Children’s Mental Health Services: A Modified Delphi Study   
  • State Strategies to Support an Aligned Behavioral Health Continuum of Care for Youth
  • Study Reveals Lack of Access as Root Cause for Mental Health Crisis in America
  • The Biggest Barriers to Accessing Youth Mental Health Care
  • The Future of Behavioral Health Services for Youth with Foster Care Experience
  • The kids are not all right: The urgent need to expand effective behavioral health services for children and youth
  • The New Jersey Pediatric Psychiatry Collaborative
  • The Role of Specialized Managed Care in Addressing the Intersection of Child Welfare Reform and Behavioral Health Transformation
  • The State of Mental Health in America
  • Top (and Bottom) 10 States For Behavioral Health Staff Shortages
  • Transforming and Expanding Access to Mental Health Care in Urban Pediatrics
  • Trauma Screen Time Training
  • Understanding the U.S. Behavioral Health Workforce Shortage
  • Virginia Mental Health Access Program
  • Virginia’s Right Help, Right Now Program
  • West Virginia Children’s Behavioral Health Services
  • When and How to Refer for Mental Health Care
  • Youth Mental Health
  • Youth Mental Health Academy
  • Funding
    • Advancing Child Welfare and Medicaid Alignment: Opportunities for Collaboration
    • Arizona Mercy Care
    • Braiding Federal Funding to Expand Access to Quality Early Care and Education and Early Childhood Supports and Services: A Tool for States and Local Communities
    • Child Welfare Financing in Colorado: Current Landscape and Recommendations
    • How Medicaid is Making a Difference for Kids with Complex Behavioral Health Needs
    • How Medicaid Supports Parents in Crisis, Children in or Youth Aging out of Foster Care, Relative Caregivers, and Adoptive Families
    • How State Medicaid Programs Serve Children and Youth in Foster Care
    • Improving Medicaid Reimbursement for Children’s Mental Health Services in Virginia
    • Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Funding Compendium
    • Investing in School Mental Health: Strategies to Wisely Spend Federal and State Funding
    • Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission
    • Medicaid Behavioral Health Care Use Among Children in Foster Care
    • Medicaid for Children with Special Needs
    • Medicaid Spending by Child Welfare Agencies in SFY 2020
    • Redesigning Medicaid: The Key to Solving Our Children’s Mental Health Crisis
    • Using New Federal Funding to Meet Children’s Behavioral Health Needs in School
    • Value-Based Payment to Support Children’s Health and Wellness: Shifting the Focus from Short-Term to Life Course Impact

American Indian/Alaska Native Tribal Nations

6
  • Culture is Healing
  • Hawaii’s Child Welfare and Mental Health Efforts
  • Healing of the Canoe Curriculum for Youth
  • Mālama ʻOhana Working Group
  • Red Lake Nation “Uplifting Our Relatives”
  • White Earth Behavioral Health Programs
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Child Welfare Mental Health Competence

122
  • “Everything started when…”: Illuminating Rupture as a Sensemaking Catalyst in Formerly Fostered, Emerging Adults’ Narratives
  • 3-5-7 Model Overview
  • A Need to Know: Enhancing Adoption Competence among Mental Health Providers
  • A Systematic Review of the Impact of Placement Instability on Emotional and Behavioral Outcomes Among Children in Foster Care
  • A Village Apart: Lummi Nation Creates a Unique Community to Support Families
  • ACEs: Adverse Childhood Experiences
  • Addressing Child Trauma
  • Addressing the Complex Needs of Youth
  • Addressing the Impact of Trauma Before Diagnosing Mental Illness in Child Welfare
  • Addressing the Mental Health Effects of Foster Care
  • Adoption an Extended Family Network
  • Adoption and Therapeutic Help
  • Adoption Competency: A Brief Introduction
  • Adoption Competent Mental Health Professionals: An Overview
  • Adoption Competent Therapy and Trauma-Informed Care
  • Adoptive Parent Competencies
  • All I Did Was Sleep’: Despite Years of Damning Reports, States Across the Country Fail To Rein in Psych Meds for Foster Youth
  • Behavioral Health Services Outcomes That Matter Most to Caregivers of Children, Youth, and Young Adults with Mental Health Needs
  • Brainspotting: The Preferred Power Therapy for Adoption
  • Building an Adoption Competent Workforce
  • Building Partnerships: Conversations with Native Americans about Mental Health Needs and Community Strengths
  • Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit
  • ChildFirst
  • Children with Traumatic Separation: Information for Professionals
  • Co-Parenting Pilot Builds Teamwork Between Parents and Foster Parents
  • Counseling for Adopted Adults and Children
  • Directory of Therapies
  • Effects of the Training for Adoption Competency (TAC) on Treatment Quality and Effectiveness, a Brief Summary
  • Effects of Training for Adoption Competency on the Quality and Effectiveness of Treatment with Adoptive Families
  • Emotional Wellness Checklist
  • Engagement of Parents as Agents of Healing
  • Engaging and Supporting Native Fathers Resource List
  • Establishing a Level Foundation for Life: Mental Health Begins in Early Childhood
  • Examining the mental health indicators and service needs of children living with foster families
  • Exploring Medication for Adopted Children
  • Family preservation services for adoptive and guardianship families
  • Foster Care Centers of Excellence
  • Getting on the Right PATH: Promoting Attachment and Trauma Healing
  • Helping Adoptive Families Thrive
  • Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Traumatic Events
  • Helping Children and Youth Thrive During and After Natural Disasters: Toolkits for Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Agencies
  • Helping Children Form Attachments
  • Helping Mental Health Providers Achieve the Outcomes That Matter Most
  • How can parents and caregivers be supported in developing a positive co-parenting relationship?
  • How can we improve placement stability for children in foster care?
  • How childhood adversity shapes brain and behavior
  • How do I talk with my teen when they push me away?
  • How do we start preventing adoption and guardianship disruption?
  • How Tribal Placements Benefit Native Children placed in Foster Care
  • I Spy Helpful Help: How to Find an Adoption-Competent Therapist
  • Improving the Mental Health of Mississippi’s Children & Youth
  • Increasing Permanency: Seven Principles for Building Emotionally Stable Foster & Adoptive Families
  • Inducement: Adoption Language We Must Understand
  • Information about the Three NTI curriculums
  • Introduction to Complex Trauma
  • Learn More About Trauma
  • Mandated Report on Therapeutic Foster Care
  • Meeting the Complex Needs of Youth Exiting Foster Care
  • Mental and Behavioral Health Needs of Children in Foster Care
  • Mental Health
  • Mental Health Considerations
  • Mental Health Services for Children Placed in Foster Care: An Overview of Current Challenges
  • Mental Health Training Tipsheets 
  • New York City Stands Out as a Rare Local Agency Tallying Foster Youth on Psychotropics. What Do the Numbers Reveal?
  • Now What? Tips for teens in foster care who are grieving
  • NTDC Classroom: Separation, Grief and Loss 
  • NTI Child Welfare Professionals’ Competencies
  • NTI Mental Health Professionals’ Core Competencies
  • NTI Transfer of Learning Guide for Mental Health Professionals in Private or Group Practice
  • Oklahoma Adoption Competency Network
  • Oversight of Psychotropic Medications Prescribed to Children in Foster Care
  • Protecting Childhood: Understanding Traumatic Stress and its Impact on Children’s Mental Health
  • Protecting Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory
  • Psychologists work to support children and parents in the child welfare system, but more is needed
  • Relational Healing for Relational Trauma: Is there anything new the neuroscience can tell us?
  • Rupture and Repair: Emotions, Attunement, and Attachment
  • Screening for trauma and behavioral health needs in child welfare: Practice implications for promoting placement stability
  • Self-taught
  • Separation, Grief, and Loss
  • Steps Toward Change: Replacing Trauma Bonds with Healing Relationships
  • Strengths-Based Strategies to Support Mental Health and Well-Being for Youth, Young Adults, and Families
  • Stress and the Healing Power of Connection
  • Supervisor Coaching and Activity Guide for Mental Health Professionals
  • Supporting Foster Youth and Their Family Connections: Policy and Practice Recommendations
  • The 3-5-7 Model—Helping Children Work Through Grief
  • The Case for Adoption Competency
  • The Effects of Child Welfare Workforce Turnover on Families
  • The Future of Behavioral Health Services for Youth with Foster Care Experience
  • The Impact of Adoption
  • The impact of loss, grief and relational connection for youth in foster care
  • The Impact of Placement Stability on Behavioral Well-Being for Children in Foster Care
  • The Importance of Adoption Competent Services
  • The Importance of Adoption-Competent Therapy for Adoptive, Foster, and Kinship Care Families
  • The Importance of Birth Parent and Foster Caregiver Partnerships
  • The Inclusive Family Support Model: Facilitating Openness for Post-Adoptive Families
  • The Need to Prioritize Relational Health
  • The Trauma Therapist podcast
  • The Value of NTI for Tribes
  • Therapy Chat podcast
  • Tip Sheet on Responding to Youth and Young Adult Mental Health Needs-Division X
  • Tips for Supporting Youth in Foster Care Who Are Grieving
  • Trauma
  • Trauma & Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
  • Trauma Informed Parenting
  • Treatment Foster Care of Oregon
  • Trends in Mental and Behavioral Health Risks in Adolescents: 1999-2021
  • Tribal Communities and Family Resilience Today
  • Truth, Healing, Reconciliation Community Forums
  • Understanding the Complex Mental Health Needs of Children in Child Welfare
  • Understanding Trauma and Healing in Adults
  • Understanding Trauma-Informed Care to Build Parent Resilience
  • Using Clinical Assessment to Enhance Adoption Success
  • What Impacts Placement Stability
  • When Problem Behavior Masks a Learning Disorder
  • Why Child Welfare Professionals Need NTI Training
  • Why NTI Training is Important for Mental Health Professionals
  • Young People and Families Share Insights to Mental Health Professionals
  • Your Guide to Behavioral Health
  • Youth In Crisis: Supporting Youth Through School and Clinic-based Mental Health Programs
  • Youth Mental Health and Well-being in Faith and Community Settings: Practicing Connectedness
  • Youth with Complex Mental Health Needs

Children and Youth Resources

11
  • An Interactive Video for Supporting Your Friends with A.S.K.
  • Resources for Children
  • Self Care
  • Somethings: Free Mental Health Support for Teens in North Carolina
  • Take Control of Your Mental Health
  • Teen Mental Health First Aid
  • The Impact of Adoption
  • We Think Twice: Mental Health Resources for Teens
  • Your Voice is Your Power podcast
  • Your Voice is Your Power Resource Hub
  • Youth and Young Adult Resources

Collaboration Between Systems and Coordination of Services

43
  •  Children with High Acuity Needs Project
  • Access in Brief: Behavioral Health Services for Youth in Foster Care
  • Addressing Mental Health Among Children, Staff and Families in Tribal Early Childhood – Tribal Early Childhood Development Webinar Series 
  • An Introduction to the Child Welfare Community Collaborations Grantees and Strategies
  • Building and Sustaining a Comprehensive Mental Health System of Care
  • Building Cross-System Collaborations in Tribal Nations
  • Caregiver-relevant perspectives from a multi-stakeholder collaborative advisory board on adapting a child mental health intervention to be delivered in child-welfare settings 
  • Center for Workforce Solutions: Crosswalk of National Behavioral Health Workforce Recommendations
  • Child and Family Service Reviews: A Factsheet for Mental Health Professionals
  • Child Health and Development Institute
  • Collaborating Between Child Welfare and Mental Health
  • Cross-system Collaboration MOU
  • Data Sharing for Child Welfare Agencies and Medicaid Toolkit
  • Data Sharing Resources for Health and Housing Partnerships
  • Data Sharing: Courts and Child Welfare
  • Glossary for State-level Data for Understanding Child Welfare in the United States
  • How can child protection agencies collaborate to prevent foster care and support family well-being?
  • How can data sharing across child- and family-serving systems be implemented effectively?
  • Implementation and Mental Health Outcomes of a Service Cascade Linking Child Welfare and Children’s Mental Health: A Case Study of the Gateway CALL Demonstration
  • Improving Information Sharing for Youth in Foster Care
  • Indiana Behavioral Health Commission
  • Indiana Children with High Acuity Needs Project
  • Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Child Welfare
  • Mental Health and Cross-System Collaboration
  • Mental Health Challenges in Caring for American Indians and Alaska Natives
  • National Care Coordination Standards for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs
  • Navigating a Broken System: The State of Mental Health in Child Welfare
  • Partnering for Success: Factors Impacting Implementation of a Cross-Systems Collaborative model Between Behavioral Health and Child Welfare 
  • Perceptions among child welfare staff when modifying a child mental health intervention to be implemented in child welfare services
  • Points for Parents: Considering Residential Care
  • Research-Practice Partnerships for Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices in Child Welfare and Child Mental Health: A White Paper 
  • Sample Memorandum of Agreements
  • School-Based Mental Health Professionals Training
  • Science for Behavioral Health Systems Change: Evolving Research-Policy-Public Partnerships
  • Specifying cross-system collaboration strategies for implementation: a multi-site qualitative study with child welfare and behavioral health organizations
  • Strategies for Partnering with Child Welfare Agencies
  • The Five Tenets of Effective Cross-System Collaboration
  • The Value of NTI for Child Welfare and Mental Health System Collaboration
  • Utilizing HOPE and Strengthening Families within systems
  • Virginia Safe and Sound Task Force
  • Washington State Children and Youth Multi-System Care Project
  • What Is Child Welfare? A Guide for Behavioral and Mental Health Professionals
  • What Is Child Welfare? A Guide for Health-Care Professionals  

Crisis Response and Suicide Prevention

44
  • “A Friend Asks” App
  • A population-based examination of suicide and child protection system involvement
  • Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ) Toolkit
  • Attachment-Based Family Therapy Training (ABFT)
  • Best and Promising Practices for the Implementation of Zero Suicide
  • Building Capacity Around Suicide Prevention in Tribal Child Welfare Programs
  • Cognitive Therapy for Suicidal Patients (CT-SP)
  • Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS)
  • Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale
  • Comparison of suicidal ideation, suicide attempt and suicide in children and young people in care and non-care populations: Systematic review and meta-analysis of prevalence
  • Development of Culture Forward: A Strengths and Culture-based Tool to Protect Our Native Youth from Suicide
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy
  • Foster Care Providers: Helping Youth at Risk for Suicide
  • Health Services Use by Children in the Welfare System Who Died by Suicide
  • Increases Found in Preteen Suicide Rate
  • Interactive Screening Program
  • Legal Issues Regarding Suicidality of Young Children in Foster Care
  • Lock to Live
  • Mental Health Crisis Planning for Children: Learn to Recognize, Manage, Prevent and Plan for Your Child’s Mental Health Crisis
  • Mental Health First Aid
  • National Guidelines for Child and Youth Behavioral Health Crisis Care
  • Pediatric and Suicide Prevention Experts Partner to Create Blueprint for Preventing Youth Suicide
  • Preventing Suicidal Behavior Among Youth in Foster Care
  • Preventing Suicide Among Foster Care Youth: A Training for Foster, Adoptive, and Other Out-of-Home Caregivers
  • Risk of suicide attempt in adopted and nonadopted offspring
  • SAMHSA Suicide Prevention Resources
  • Screening and Assessment of Suicidal Behavior in Transition-Age Youth with Foster Care Involvement
  • Suicidal Ideation
  • Suicide in Foster Care: A High-Priority Safety Concern
  • Suicide prevention conversation starters for parents of kids and teens
  • Suicide Prevention in Child Welfare
  • Suicide Prevention in Children and Youth
  • Suicide Prevention Organizations
  • Suicide Prevention Resource Center
  • Suicide Prevention Resource Center-Foster Care
  • Suicide Prevention with Foster Youth
  • Supporting Your Child During Cutting and Self-Harm Episodes
  • Talking to Parents About Depression
  • The Role of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics in Crisis Services and Systems
  • The Urgent Need to Recognize and Reduce Risk of Suicide for Children in the Welfare System
  • Tribal Listening Session on the 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention
  • Warning Signs of Suicide
  • Wellness: Mind, Body, Spirit: Signs & Symptoms of Suicide Ideation
  • Zero Suicide Resource Collection

Data

18
  • Adoption by the Numbers
  • Behavioral Health Initiatives by State
  • Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) Information Portal
  • Child Welfare and Foster Care Statistics
  • Child Welfare Data and Research
  • Child Welfare Financing Survey
  • Child Welfare Outcomes Data Site
  • Expenditure Data
  • Health Workforce Shortage Areas
  • Kids Count Data Book
  • Kinship Care
  • SAMHSA Grant Information
  • State of American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Families Report
  • State-by-State Children in Foster Care Data
  • State-by-State Foster Care Data
  • State-level Data for Understanding Child Welfare in the United States
  • The Long-Term Impact of Parental Mental Health on Children’s Distress Trajectories in Adulthood
  • The State of Mental Health in America

Engagement of Lived Experience

34
  • A Tool for Youth Engagement and Youth Empowerment
  • Are We Practicing What We Preach? Family Partnership in Residential Care
  • Building and Sustaining Effective Parent Partnerships: Stages of Relationship Development 
  • Community Outreach and Engagement: Toolkit for Mental Health-Serving Agencies
  • Continuum of Family Partnership: What Does it Look Like in Residential Care?
  • Engaging Families in Child Welfare and Mental Health Services Part One
  • Engaging Families in Child Welfare and Mental Health Services Webinar Part Two
  • Engaging Families in Systems of Care
  • Engaging Fathers
  • Engaging Young People With Lived Experience in the CFSRs: Key Considerations, Roles, and Recommendations
  • Experts by Experience: How Engaging People with Lived Experience Can Improve Social Services
  • Family Empowerment Implementation Manual 
  • Family Engagement in Systems Change: Use of a New Assessment Tool in Quality Improvement
  • Family Engagement to Support Student Mental Health and Well-Being
  • Family Engagement: Partnering With Families to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes
  • Family-Driven Resources
  • Guide for Developing Family Councils
  • Improving the Wellbeing of Youth in Foster Care  
  • Incorporating Lived Experience into Child Welfare Capacity Building
  • Incorporating Those with Lived Experience into Your Support Services for Adoptive, Foster, and Kinship Families
  • Key Programmatic Elements of Father Engagement to Promote Self-Sufficiency (KEEP Fathers Engaged)
  • Lead Family Coordinators: Roles, Responsibilities, and Opportunities
  • Lived Experience (LEx) Leadership: Critical to Being Trauma Informed
  • Office of Individual and Family Affairs
  • Parenting Engagement in Foster Care Placement Stability and Permanency 
  • Partnering With Families to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes 
  • Prioritizing Youth Voice: The Importance of Authentic Youth Engagement in Case Planning
  • Rhode Island DCYF Listening and Learning Tour
  • The Potential for Co-Creation in Implementation Science
  • Tribal Best Practices for Family Engagement
  • Tribal Leadership Series: Youth Engagement
  • What are some strategies for engaging fathers in child welfare?
  • Young People in Advocacy: How We Can Help Elevate Youth Voices in Mental Health Advocacy
  • Youth Advisory Boards

Funding

3
  • Flexible Funds for Concrete Supports to Families as a Child Welfare Prevention Strategy
  • How are Child Welfare Systems Using Flexible Funds to Support Families and Prevent the Need for Foster Care?
  • Vermont Mental Health Payment Reform

Juvenile Justice

5
  • Bernalillo County Mental Health Clinic Case Study: A Guide to Juvenile Detention Reform
  • Crossover Youth Practice Model
  • Intersection of Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems
  • Medicaid Opportunities to Support Youth Leaving Incarceration
  • New Medicaid Opportunities to Support Youth Leaving Incarceration: Building Community Well-Being and Advancing Prevention Efforts

Kinship Care

23
  • American Indian & Alaska Native Grandfamilies: Helping Children Thrive Through Connection to Family and Cultural Identity
  • Benefits of Kinship Placement
  • Diverting Children from Foster to Kinship Care: The Issue and the Evidence
  • Engaging Kinship Caregivers: Loyalty Issues
  • Family Ties: Analysis From a State-By-State Survey of Kinship Care Policies
  • GrandFacts: Fact Sheets for Each State
  • Guidance for Policy Language: Kinship Services in Tribal Child Welfare – Toolkit Part 2
  • Health and Well-Being of Children in Kinship Care: Findings from the National Survey of Children in Nonparental Care
  • Kinship Care and Child Welfare System
  • Kinship Caregivers Guide:  How to Support Older Youth with Foster Care Experience through Co-Regulation
  • Let’s Talk About It: Supporting Grandfamilies’ Mental Health and Emotional Well-Being
  • Living and Working with Kin: A Real Life Experience
  • Policy Issues Overview Part 1: Kinship Services in Tribal Child Welfare
  • Relative Foster Care Is Increasing Among American Indian and Alaska Native Children in Foster Care
  • The Hidden Hurdles and Benefits of Kinship Care and Adoption
  • The Kinship Services in Tribal Child Welfare Policy Toolkit 
  • The Kinship Treatment Foster Care Initiative Toolkit
  • Training Series: Coping with the Unique Challenges of Kinship Care
  • Tribal Kinship Care
  • Understanding ICWA Placements Using Kinship Care Research
  • Unlocking Foster Care Licensing for More Kinship Caregivers
  • What should every child protection agency do to ensure that children are placed with kin?
  • wikiHow for Kinship Foster Care
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Latest Articles

3
  • Meeting the Complex Needs of Youth Exiting Foster Care
  • Psychologists work to support children and parents in the child welfare system, but more is needed
  • What Impacts Placement Stability

Parenting Resources

33
  • ADHD vs Trauma in Foster Children
  • Attachment
  • Becoming a Better Me for Them
  • Behavioral Health: What Parents Should Know
  • Building Children’s Resilience
  • Building Relationships Filled with Hope
  • Building Trust with Children and Youth
  • Developmental Disruptions
  • Expanding Your Parenting Paradigm
  • Family Peer Support Specialist Resources
  • Finding the Right Mental Health Therapist
  • Get Results with Better Conversation
  • Helping Your Adopted Children Maintain Important Relationships with Family
  • Helping Your Child Transition from Foster Care to Adoption
  • Holidays with Extended Family: An Opportunity for Connection
  • How do I talk with my teen when they push me away?
  • How to Honor Your Child’s Birth Family
  • Kinds of Assessments, Why Should I Get One, and When Should I Do It?
  • National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents
  • NTI Training: A Family Perspective
  • Parent Guidance
  • Parenting Children and Youth Who Have Experienced Abuse or Neglect
  • Parenting Your Adopted Preschooler
  • Parenting Your Adopted School-Age Child
  • Parenting Your Adopted Teenager
  • Relationship-Focused Discipline
  • Reunification from Foster Care: A Guide for Parents 
  • Strategies for Supporting Youth with Complex Mental Health Needs
  • Talking About Mental Health: Tips For Parents and Caregivers From Young People
  • The Good News: What You Do Matters
  • The Good News: What You Do Matters, A Discussion with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
  • The Impact of Social Media on Children
  • Trauma Informed Parenting-Sequential Engagement

Peer Support

13
  • Family Peer Support
  • Helping a Friend: The Power of Asking and Listening
  • Improving Access to Care through Creating Certified Family Peer Specialists Across the Lifespan
  • Informal and Formal Family Peer Support: The Impact and Evidence
  • Medicaid Funding for Family and Youth Peer Support Programs in the United States
  • Medicaid Reimbursement for Peer Support Services A Detailed Analysis of Rates, Processes, and Procedures
  • Parent Peer Support Activities
  • Peer Support
  • Peer support matters: Strategies to incorporate and elevate those with lived experience
  • Peer Support Services Technical Assistance Center
  • Promoting Peer Support in Child Welfare
  • Providing Peer Support for Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Families
  • The Emerging Field of Behavioral Health Paraprofessionals

Residential Treatment Programs

14
  • Building Bridges Initiative
  • Congregate Care in the Age of Family First
  • Congregate Care in the Age of Family First: Family Engagement
  • Congregate Care in the Age of Family First: Trauma-Informed Care
  • Elements of Effective Practice for Children and Youth Served by Therapeutic Residential Care
  • Family Engagement in Residential Programs
  • Family First Implementation: A One-Year Review of State Progress in Reforming Congregate Care
  • How are some child protection agencies attending to Qualified Residential Treatment Program requirements?
  • Investing in Community-Based Care for Children and Youth Involved with Child Welfare
  • Leading State Priorities and Considerations for Youth Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Facilities
  • New York Case Study: Supporting Youth Behavioral Health through Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Facilities 
  • Residential Treatment
  • Safely Reducing the Use of Congregate Care: Considerations in the Age of Family First
  • Wisconsin Case Study: Supporting Youth Mental Health through Crisis Stabilization Facilities
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Technical Assistance

30
  • 2023 State Legislation Issue Brief Series: Trends in State Policy: Youth Mental Health
  • Best Practices and Tools to Establish Implementation Teams
  • C.A.S.E. Academy for Advancing Clinical Practice
  • C.A.S.E. Capabilities
  • Children’s Behavioral Health – Promising Practices in Tribal Communities
  • Connecting technical assistance to implementation progress in child welfare capacity building efforts
  • Contemporary Attachment and Bonding Research: Implications for American Indian/Alaska Native Children and their Service Providers 
  • Creating a New Narrative: Collaborative and Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communities
  • Dynamic Implementation Teams: Figuring Out What Works When Working Together
  • Evidence-Based Policymaking and Advocacy
  • Four Phases of Technical Assistance
  • How Important are Relationships for Successful Implementation?
  • Illinois Child-Parent Psychotherapy Learning Collaborative
  • Implementation Teams Overview
  • Invest Time and Trust in The National Center
  • Learning Collaboratives: a Strategy for Quality Improvement and Implementation in Behavioral Health
  • Mental Health and Foster Care
  • Mental Health Resources for American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
  • National Center Video
  • NTI Toolkit
  • Overview of the National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services
  • Peer Support Strategies for Families in Tribal Communities
  • Required Elements of Intensive Technical Assistance
  • State of American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Families Report
  • The Five Functions of an Implementation Support Specialist
  • Tips for Engaging Participants on Calls: Strategies to Support Distance-Learning
  • Tips for Implementation Teams
  • Using a Collaborative Workspace to Support a Community of Learners
  • Variety of Teaching Methods: What Works

Workforce

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  • Advancing community health worker models to support youth and families’ mental health
  • Assessment Tool: Fostering Psychological Safety on Child Welfare Teams
  • Burnout in Mental Health Services: A Review of the Problem and Its Remediation
  • Center for Workforce Solutions: Crosswalk of National Behavioral Health Workforce Recommendations
  • How does turnover in the child welfare workforce impact children and families?
  • Mental Health and the Child Welfare Workforce
  • National Center for Workforce Analysis: Behavioral Health Workforce 2023
  • The Burnout Epidemic: High Turnover in Child Welfare
  • Therapist training in evidence-based interventions for mental health: A systematic review of training approaches and outcomes
  • Top (and Bottom) 10 States For Behavioral Health Staff Shortages
  • Worker Turnover is a Persistent Child Welfare Challenge – So is Measuring It
  • Workforce Trends: Behavioral Health in Focus
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About

Overview Partners Evaluation The National Center Team Media Kit

Communications

Blog Ask the Center/FAQS

Knowledge Hub

Knowledge Hub Knowledge Hub Selection Criteria Adoption Competence National Directory
Learning Communities
Events

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