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Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental
Health
(American Institutes for Research/Federation of Families for
Children’s Mental Health)
Background
The Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health (TA
Partnership) operates under a contract with the Federal Center for Mental
Health Services (CMHS) to provide community-driven technical assistance to
system of care communities funded by the Comprehensive Community Mental Health
Services Program for Children and Their Families. The goal of the
Technical Assistance Partnership is to support states and local communities in
their efforts to successfully develop and implement systems of care.
The TA Partnership is a collaboration between two mission-driven
organizations:
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The American Institutes for Research – committed to improvement in the lives of
families and communities through the translation of research into best practice
and policy, and
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The Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health – dedicated to
effective family leadership and advocacy to improve the quality of life of
children with mental health needs and their families.
This partnership models the family-professional relationship that is an
essential value in this work. Families must share a leadership role in
planning, implementing, and evaluating systems of care in their communities.
The TA Partnership provides a staff of family members in key roles and
professionals with extensive practice experience, grounded in an organization
with vast research experience.
The TA Partnership works in collaboration with CMHS Program Partners, such as
the National Indian Child Welfare Association, Vanguard Communications,
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, ORC Macro, and
the Georgetown National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental
Health, among others.
Areas of Activity
Five Regional Technical Assistance Coordinators (RTACs)
RTACs are family members and/or professionals who will help to broker and
facilitate customer-focused technical assistance (TA) to system of care
communities funded by the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for
Children and Their Families Program. The goal for these individuals is to
assist communities to design, develop, and implement effective systems of care
to improve mental health services and outcomes for children and adolescents
with emotional disturbances and their families. The RTACs will serve as
the primary link between funded communities, the TA Partnership staff, CMHS,
consultants, and the Federal TA Partners, to promote a shared sense of vision
and purpose across communities and an integrated, coordinated program of
technical assistance.
Resource Specialists
The Technical Assistance Partnership has nine resource specialists who are
experts in the areas of family, youth, mental health, juvenile justice,
education, child welfare, substance abuse, cultural competence, and primary
health care. These advisors work together as a team to enhance
interdisciplinary collaboration and provide technical assistance in their areas
of expertise.
Consultant Pool
The consultant pool provides system of care communities with useful and easily
accessible information on consultants with various areas of expertise that may
be valuable resources to them in developing systems of care. The list of
consultants is available on the TA Partnership Web site at
http://www.tapartnership.org. System of care communities can
search for a consultant by name and by area of expertise.
Learning Opportunities
Learning opportunities promote peer-to-peer exchange and knowledge sharing among
system of care communities to address common challenges in systems of
care. System of care communities are given a forum to discuss strategies
for overcoming barriers to systems of care development. The TA
Partnership provides a master calendar with a logical and cumulative sequence
of Webinars on topical areas of concern across system of care
communities. Resource specialists or other experts in systems of care
development facilitate each discussion.
Web Site
The TA Partnership’s Web site (www. tapartnership.org) contains our newsletter
(described below), a calendar of events, topical discussion boards, and
electronic registration pages for our learning opportunities and the annual
System of Care Community meeting. Additional information includes contact
information for all the regional technical assistance coordinators, resource
specialists, consultants, learning opportunities, and system of care
communities, plus links to many useful resources. In addition, the Web
site contains mini-Web pages for each of our resource specialists (family,
youth, juvenile justice, education, mental health, child welfare, substance
abuse, and primary health care).
Newsletter
We publish an electronic newsletter monthly on the TA Partnership’s Web
page. It contains items carefully selected from almost 30 independent
sources as well as original columns: Highlights from the Field, which describes
excellent system of care practices and Families Matter!, which presents a
family voice on system of care issues. The newsletter is designed to be
relevant to administrators, providers across multiple child-serving fields,
family members, and other stakeholders in systems of care. The newsletter
also includes information about upcoming events, new research findings, and
funding opportunities.
Conferences and Workshops
The TA Partnership plans and coordinates one national and multiple
regionally-based system of care community meetings each year. In
addition, the TA Partnership organizes and conducts special topic meetings.
Team Learning Centers
Team Learning Centers are graduated, mature, or other communities that have
successfully established and sustained a system of care. The Learning Centers
will be matched with young communities to provide peer-to-peer technical
assistance.
| Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family
Mental Health 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW Washington, DC 20007
Phone: 202-403-6827 Fax: 202-403-5007 E-mail:
tapartnership@air.org Web site: http://www.tapartnership.org
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| Juanita Adams Administrative Associate Phone: 202-403-5016
Fax: 202-403-5007 E-mail:
jadams@air.org
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Melissa Bristow Research Assistant Phone: 202-403-5152
E-mail: mbristow@air.org
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Lisa Brown Family Resource Specialist Phone: 703-684-7710
Fax: 703-836-1040 E-mail:
lbrown@ffcmh.org
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| Stephany Bryan Regional Technical Assistance Coordinator
Phone: 512-291-3884 E-mail: sbryan@ffcmh.org
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Joyce Burrell Juvenile Justice Resource Specialist Phone:
202-403-5610 Fax: 202-403-5007 E-mail: jburrell@air.org
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Lisa Conlan Family Resource Specialist Phone: 401-397-5489
E-mail: lisaconlan2@aol.com
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| Joy Cunningham Administrative Support Specialist Phone:
713-729-3827 Fax: 713-729-3839 E-mail: jcunningham@air.org
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Emmett Dennis Communications Director Phone: 202-403-6860
Fax: 202-403-5007 E-mail: edennis@air.org
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Ivonn Ellis-Wiggan Regional Technical Assistance
Coordinator Phone: 856-218-8984 E-mail: ielliswiggan@ffcmh.org
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| Rachel Freed Research Assistant Phone: 202-403-5389 E-mail:
rfreed@air.org
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Mike Friedman Phone: 202-403-6894 E-mail:
mfriedman@air.org
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Regenia Hicks Project Director Phone: 713-729-3827 E-mail:
rhicks@air.org
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| Larke Huang Lead, Cultural Competence Operationalization
Team Liaison, National Evaluation and CQI Phone:
202-403-5180 Email:
Lhuang@air.org
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Sharon Hunt Deputy Project Director Phone: 202-403-6914
E-mail: shunt@air.org
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Sandra Keenan Education Resource Specialist Phone:
401-782-6096 E-mail: skeenan@air.org
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| Anita Marshall Child Welfare Resource Specialist Phone:
202-403-5634 E-mail: amarshall@air.org
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Marlene Matarese Youth Involvement Resource Specialist
Phone: 202-403-6859 E-mail: mmatarese@air.org
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Leigh Meredith Research Assistant Phone: 202-403-6908
E-mail: lmeredith@air.org
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| David Osher Principal Investigator Phone: 202-403-5373
E-mail: dosher@air.org
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Trina Osher Advisor Phone: 301-434-4071 E-mail:
tosher@ffcmh.org
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Rebecca Ornelas Regional Technical Assistance Coordinator
Phone: 915-307-4621 E-mail: bornelas@ffcmh.org
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| Marion Robinson Administrative Assistant Phone:
703-684-7710 Fax: 703-836-1040 Email: mrobinson@ffcmh.org
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Gayle Porter Mental Health Resource Specialist Phone:
202-403-2631 E-mail:
gporter@air.org
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Carlos Rodriguez Phone:
202-403-5343 Email:
crodriguez@air.org
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| Sandra Spencer Co-Principal Investigator Federation of
Families for Children’s Mental Health Phone: 703-684-7710 Fax: 703-836-1040
E-mail: sspencer@ffcmh.org
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Sheryl Schrepf Regional Technical Assistance Coordinator
Phone: 402-470-3785 E-mail: sschrepf@ffcmh.org
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Bruce Strahl Regional Technical Assistance Coordinator
Phone: 813-383-2472 E-mail: bstrahl@ffcmh.org
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| Mary Tierney Primary Care Resource Specialist 202-403-5620
E-mail: mtierney@air.org
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