From the Director

When children and families who have experienced the child welfare system address their mental health needs, they shouldn’t face insurmountable barriers that impede their ability to achieve good outcomes. Families need to be able to receive services that are delivered by a workforce that has the knowledge, skills and experience to effectively meet their needs. The mental health providers they work with must understand the impact of their experiences with abuse, neglect, trauma, and loss. And their work must be culturally and linguistically responsive. Being well skilled is an important part of the equation, but these mental health services must also be accessible to all who need them. Positive mental health outcomes for these children and families can be achieved when both Child Welfare and Mental Health systems work in partnership to ensure a skilled workforce is available to all. We must transform our systems to deliver what families need. Our children and families across the nation desire better.

I’m excited to see so many people across the country showing a desire to learn more about how to further develop a mental health workforce that is equipped to serve this population, strengthen collaboration between child welfare and mental health systems, and increase equitable access to quality child welfare competent mental health services. This first e-newsletter from our National Center launches our commitment to provide ongoing communication about evidence-informed practices and strategies you can use, upcoming learning and peer-to-peer connection opportunities, insights from our technical assistance (TA) work, and other relevant resources to support you in your work. Each subsequent issue will give you helpful new information, provide opportunities for you to engage with us, and continue to highlight emerging knowledge about effective approaches for improving mental health outcomes for children.

You are likely looking for specific strategies and tips that you can put to use in your work. You may also want more in-depth assistance in making transformational change. You have come to the right place! Funded through a five year grant from the Children’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, our National Center is able to provide a continuum of free services and resources to help you increase your system’s capacity to provide accessible and culturally competent mental health services to youth and families who have been involved in the child welfare system through stronger, sustained collaboration between child welfare and mental health systems.

Our National Center’s approaches leverage deep expertise and experience and strong relationships from all of our partnering organizations, modeling the collaboration between child welfare and mental health leaders and the commitment to racial equity and youth and family voices that we know are essential to move this work forward.

“Leveraging this expertise, we are now able to build bridges between child welfare and mental health systems and enhance the capacity of the workforce nationally. We are proud to model this cross-system partnership to address the mental health crisis plaguing our nation and ensure equitable, accessible, culturally competent, evidenced informed mental health services for children and families and integrate the voices of those with lived experiences to guide the work.”

–Debbie Riley LCMFT, CEO Center for Adoption Support and Education

We are excited to be able to assist states, tribes, and territories in multiple ways through our services. We are here to support you by: providing expertise and evidence-informed training and universal TA services; facilitating active engagement in our Knowledge Hub and sharing best practices in child welfare and mental health; and delivering intensive, tailored, on-site TA I invite you to explore our website to access great information and to find out more about how we can assist you in your work. Please always feel free to reach out to us to discuss ways that we can partner with you.

Sincerely,

Mary Wichansky , LCSW-C
Director National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services