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National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental
Health
(Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development)
Dedicated
to helping states, tribes, territories, and communities discover, apply, and
sustain innovative and collaborative solutions that improve the social,
emotional, and behavioral well-being of children and families.
We enhance and strengthen the work of states, tribes, territories, and
communities as they strive to achieve comprehensive mental health delivery
systems for children and families.
System of care values and principles guide our work with states and communities
and result in approaches that are:
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Community-based
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Comprehensive,
coordinated, and collaborative across agencies and systems
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Involve
families and youth as full partners
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Culturally
competent with respect to racial, ethnic and linguistic differences
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Individualized,
flexible, coordinated and designed to fit each child and family and
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Strength-based
Areas of Focus
The National TA Center focuses on priority areas for developing and
implementing comprehensive service delivery systems: policy development,
leadership development, strategic planning, interagency collaboration, family
involvement, cultural competence, early childhood mental health systems of
care, evaluation, interagency management information systems, evidence-based
and promising practices, financing and managed care, workforce development, and
mediation and negotiation training.
The National TA Center activities reach diverse stakeholders including state
and local policymakers, administrators of all child-serving systems, service
providers, families, youth, advocates, researchers and evaluators, and
educators.
Upcoming Training Events
The National TA Center offers
regular training through National Training Institutes, The National Conference
Call Series, National Policy Academies, Leadership Academies, and System of
Care Training and Early Childhood Mental Health Policy Academies.
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The
next National Training Institutes will be held in June 2006.
The Institutes are held every two years and bring together about 2,000
people from all across the country for intensive training in a wide range of
topics related to systems of care development.
Each Institute has a special focus on an area critical to systems
transformation. The 2006
Institutes will offer four-hour in-depth training institutes and many workshops
featuring innovative and best practices from across the country.
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The
National Technical Assistance Topical Conference Call Series presents
discussions on critical issues in systems transformation.
The monthly calls are held the third Thursday of each month from 1-2:30
pm EST. The 2005 series will begin
in January. Details on calls
and registration can be found on our website.
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The
fifth National Policy Academy for States, Tribes and will be held in July 2005.
The Policy Academy brings together delegations from states, tribes and
territories to do intensive work on designing new policies to improve service
delivery and outcomes for children and families with mental health needs.
Extensive pre-, onsite, and follow-up work is done with the delegations
to maximize successful policy development.
Applications to participate in the 2005 Policy Academy will be distributed to
governors and tribal authorities in January.
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A
National Leadership Academy is held each year for family and professional
leaders of the federal CMHS Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for
Children and Their Families Program grantees, leaders of statewide family
organizations, and state mental health agencies.
These academies are designed to enhance the leadership skills of
participants in implementing systems of care.
The next leadership academy will be held in March 2005.
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Primer
Hands On is an intensive course on building effective systems of care.
The two-day course is designed for state, community and family leaders
in systems of care. The next
Primer Hands On training will be held in November 2004 in Washington, DC and
again in March 2005. Adaptations
of the course have been developed for new federally funded systems of care
grantees and statewide family network chapters.
Individualized Technical Assistance and
Consultation
National Technical Assistance Center faculty and staff provide assistance
to states, tribes and communities on a wide variety of key topics either by
phone or onsite. Faculty and staff are frequently work with specific states or
communities on issues related to their systems development.
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Technical assistance on
cultural competence is provided by the National Center for Cultural Competence
(NCCC) at The Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development. The
mission of the NCCC is to increase the capacity of health care and mental
health programs to design, implement, and evaluate culturally and
linguistically competent service delivery systems. The NCCC conducts an array
of activities to fulfill its mission, including: 1) training, technical
assistance, and consultation; 2) networking, linkages, and information
exchange; and 3) knowledge and product development and dissemination. Major
emphasis is placed on policy development, assistance in conducting cultural
competence organizational self-assessments, and strategic approaches to the
systematic incorporation of culturally competent values, policy, structures,
and practices within organizations.
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Technical assistance on
early intervention and behavioral health services and supports for young
children is provided to states, tribes, and communities that are designing and
implementing policy and community service approaches. Technical assistance is
also available through monographs on financing strategies and models of mental
health consultation in early childhood settings.
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Faculty are available to
provide technical assistance to communities around addressing and preventing
youth violence and on conflict mediation and resolution across agencies and
with clients.
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Faculty also provide
technical assistance on collaboration between child welfare and mental health
agencies, including policy development, improving program services, financing
service delivery, and utilizing welfare reform Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (ANF) funds to provide mental health service to families receiving or
leaving welfare.
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Technical assistance on building
evaluation into systems of care and on building interagency management
information systems is provided in a variety of ways, including an ongoing
national scan of state and community evaluation activities posted on the
National TA Center Web site, issues of Data Matters newsletter, a
management information system Toolkit, the Technical Assistance on Management
Information Systems (TAMIS) listserv, Interagency MIS Roundtable Meetings, and
conference calls on evaluation strategies.
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The Transforming, Linking and
Caring (TLC) initiative is a collaboration with SAMHSA to link together
multiple federally funded grants in close geographical areas around the nation
to increase their collaboration, impact, and sustainability.
The TLC project is currently working with three sites in the East,
Midwest, and West.
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The State Infrastructure Grant
program, recently funded by CMHS, awarded funds to six states and one Tribe to
improve infrastructures to promote comprehensive service delivery in
communities. The National TA
Center provides technical assistance to grantees on meeting their
infrastructure development goals and objectives.
Technical assistance focuses on strategic planning processes and
development of systems management structures to implement transformations.
Technical Assistance Publications
The National TA
Center develops documents describing evidenced-based practices, conceptual
frameworks for systems development, cross-agency service and financing
approaches, findings from research and evaluations, topical fact sheets,
practical toolkits that synthesize information on aspects of developing
collaborative systems of care, and training curricula. Many new informative
monographs and briefing papers are produced each year. A listing of
publications is available on the National TA Center Web site.
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Strategies
for understanding, planning for and implementing cultural and linguistic
competence in systems of care are the focus of publications on the Web site of
the National Center for Cultural Competence and include, A Guide to Planning and
Implementing Cultural Competence: Organizational Self Assessment, Planning for
Cultural and Linguistic Competence in Systems of Care, Getting Started…Moving
On, and Cultural Competence Planning Guide.
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The
National TA Center publishes Data Matters,
a summary of current information and resources on program evaluation,
interagency management systems, and evidence- based practices.
Data Matters is written for a broad audience.
Data Matters #6, the most recent issue, gives an introduction to
evidence-based practices and is available on our web site or it can be ordered.
Data Maters #7 will be published in 2005 and will focus on
evidence-based practices and cultural competence.
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Building
Systems of Care: A Primer, by Sheila Pires, is a detailed tool kit for
learning the processes and structures necessary to build effective system of
care. This comprehensive
publication covers all components of systems building and provides many
examples of effective community practices.
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A
Family’s Guide to the Child Welfare System is a hands-on resource for
families who need to understand and negotiate the many programs in the child
welfare system. The guide is a
great resource for direct services providers to understand the child welfare
system from a family’s perspective.
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An
Issue Brief On Systems of Care, by Beth Stroul, discusses the
framework of systems of care in a changing mental health environment.
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Technical
assistance on networking with child welfare around meeting the mental health
needs of children in foster care and child protective services is provided
through a series of monographs available from the National TA Center.
Two new documents are Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Children in
Foster Care System: Strategies for Implementation and Meeting the Mental
Health Needs of Children in the Foster Care System: Summary of State and
Community Efforts. A variety of Center activities promote
collaboration between the child welfare and mental health systems, including
information on the Adoption and Safe Families Act, the Family Opportunity Act,
and on promising examples of collaborative initiatives.
Communities Can!
Background
Communities Can! began in 1990 when
the Federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the American Academy of
Pediatrics created it to identify, recognize, and study communities that had
made substantial progress toward building coordinated, family-centered,
culturally competent systems of care for children with special needs. This
effort was then expanded to invite other communities to become part of a
network to support community systems development, with additional support
provided by the Child, Adolescent and Family Branch (CAFB) of the Federal
Center for Mental Health Services in the form of both funding and active
participation in the planning and implementation of this new effort. In 1997,
the Federal Interagency Coordinating Council (FICC) for early intervention
joined by endorsing Communities Can! The FICC serves as the mechanism for
Federal agencies with common program goals to facilitate coordination of
resources and to model interagency coordination at the Federal level.
Communities Can! works with the FICC through its Services Integration
Subcommittee, which is currently chaired by Dr. Merle McPherson of the Federal
Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
Communities Can! is now a growing
national coalition of communities dedicated to effectively serving and
supporting all children, including those with or at risk for disabilities, and
their families. Communities Can! was created as a fulfillment of a vision,
providing a supportive network for communities working toward creating
family-centered, community-based, culturally competent systems of care.
This network, coordinated by the
Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development, is designed to:
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link
communities with other communities to learn from their experiences;
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connect
communities with information about how to better serve and support all
families;
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help
communities develop community leadership and strengthen community processes;
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give
communities a voice in policy decisions; and
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recognize
and publicize the achievements of members by honoring five communities each
year in a Congressional Recognition Program.
The major emphasis in working with
communities that have grants from the Center for Mental Health Services is in
leadership development. In working and listening to leaders for many years, we
found the work of the leaders in the systems-of-care field is often so consumed
by putting out fires, that the opportunity to reflect on one’s own role and
responsibility as a leader seems impossible. Communities Can! is providing this
opportunity for community leaders through the Leadership Academy. The chaotic
and rapidly changing environment of communities around the country demands that
we begin to do the work of leadership differently. As it has been said, “If you
do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” Leadership
is no different, and at Communities Can! we know that it’s time to provide
leaders with tools that will make a profound impact on their capacity to lead
by helping them discover their sources of effectiveness and new perspectives
and paradigms about the very essence of leadership itself.
Areas
of Activity
Leadership Academy
The Communities Can! Leadership
Academy offers leaders an opportunity to take a step back from the day-to-day
and to explore the nature of leadership, their role as leaders in the process
of systems change, and strategies to support their continued growth and
development as leaders.
The academy is designed to help
community leaders:
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develop
a consciousness about the nature and practice of leadership and commitment of
the leadership role;
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gain
a greater understanding of individual leadership strengths and opportunities
for improvement which promote success;
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broaden
individual skills and tools for greater effectiveness in leadership activities;
and
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understand
that leadership is the ability to mobilize people to change, and the capacity
to make a difference.
The academy curriculum models a
process of change that is anchored in self-examination and discovery. It
incorporates the exploration of the dynamics of community transformation
through collaboration, risk-taking, and the creative use of stress to foster
change and sustain it over time. Participants focus on examining their
leadership behavior and actions within chaos, conflict, and change, and
strengthening their ability to mobilize community involvement and adapt to
change effectively.
The Communities Can! Leadership
Academy is an opportunity for leaders to: 1) reinforce their passion for
systems change; 2) learn new ways to understand and define the leadership role
within systems of care; and 3) create effective strategies to sustain oneself
as a leader in an environment of rapid change and uncertainty.
The Communities Can! Leadership
Academy has three stages of learning:
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a
3-month preparatory period in which individuals begin understanding and
identifying their leadership behaviors and challenges;
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a
4-day intensive training and learning institute that employs a variety of
learning methods to give leaders a supportive environment in which they can
explore their own leadership strengths and opportunities for improvement; and
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a
continuous learning framework in which Academy participants apply and deepen
the leadership concepts in their home environment through the use of a
peer-driven National Learning Community of Leaders. Additional support and
coaching by Academy staff and faculty is available on a fee basis.
During the training program,
participants are led through a process examining personal vision and values.
Through interactive dialogue, participants are then presented a variety of
tools for framing the work, building a shared vision, and expanding one’s set
of leadership skills. The “adaptive challenge framework” for community
leadership, designing ways to lead without authority, recognizing personal
mechanisms for managing conflict, and increasing capacity to evaluate and take
risks, are cornerstones of the academy. Participants and faculty design various
strategies for “thriving in the chaos” to help sustain their effects over time.
Leadership Academy faculty and staff
work with participants to create an environment that cultivates self-discovery
and peer collaboration. These tools are utilized with a higher goal in mind: to
equip leaders with frameworks to think and behave differently, in order to
discover new solutions and sustain change.
The Communities Can! Leadership
Academy is created for families and professionals at all levels of community,
local, State, and Federal government, who are committed to expanding their own
leadership and implementing systems change through an expansion of their own
leadership capacity.
We have offered this program to
community and family leaders in the systems of care field, State mental health
administrators, and employees of the Federal Government.
Negotiating Together
Working to develop and advocate for
services and supports for children and families in communities often involves
dealing with conflict. To successfully resolve those conflicts, it is important
that families, providers, agency staff, and other community leaders have the
skills to effectively negotiate their differences in ways that build mutual
respect, collaboration, and positive relationships over time.
This course focuses on a process and
the skills necessary to engage in a collaborative or interest-based
negotiation. Participants explore the theory of conflict and negotiation
styles, and learn through a variety of teaching methods the communication
skills and the step-by-step process of negotiating that leads to interest-based
decisions.
Facilitating Together
In this world of complex systems,
ever-expanding knowledge, and intricate webs of working relationships, coming
to common ground is a challenge for all of us. Communities and other groups
working to build collaborative efforts for children and families often discover
that the process gets stalled, despite many meetings and efforts. Facilitating
the group to make decisions and act on those decisions usually falls to the
leadership of the group.
This course focuses on the learning
and skills necessary to be effective in that facilitative role and on special
techniques for managing the process. Participants have an opportunity to
explore, through the use of facilitation, ways to enhance the collaborative
decision making of community groups, work-teams, and other gatherings of people
who must work together to solve problems.
Communities of Excellence Awards
Each year, an awards process
identifies and recognizes five communities that have found an effective way to
use the resources from key Federal public programs for serving young children
and their families (education, early intervention, health, mental health,
childcare, Head Start, and developmental disabilities) to build an integrated
set of services and supports that work for families and young children (ages
0-8). These services and supports should be family-centered, culturally
competent, and coordinated and ensure the inclusion of all children and
families as valued members of community life.
These five communities are invited
to a special meeting for three days in Washington, DC. Each community brings a
delegation of at least five key members of the community team including at
least one family member. The first day of the meeting is designed to provide
community representatives with an introduction to leadership concepts and
skills. On the second day, community representatives meet with Federal
representatives from Federal Interagency Coordinating Council (FICC) member
agencies to discuss issues related to Federal policy and community systems
development. The third day is a celebration of the “Communities of Excellence.”
An awards ceremony is held at the U.S. Capitol. First, communities meet with
their local representative or senator. Later that morning, a member of Congress
representing their own community presents them with their award.
<Communities Can!
Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development
3307 M Street NW, Suite 401
Washington, DC 20007
Phone: 202-687-8784
Fax: 202-687-8899
E-mail: communities@gunet.georgetown.edu
Web site: <http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/programs/ta_center/communities_can/index.html
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<Ellen B. Kagen, M.S.W.<
Director
E-mail: kageneb@georgetown.edu
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<Suzanne Bronheim
Senior Policy Analyst
E-mail: bronheis@georgetown.edu
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<Neal M. Horen, Ph.D.
Alumni Coordinator
E-mail: horenn@georgetown.edu
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<Janine Jakubcik
Program Coordinator
E-mail: jmj9@georgetown.edu
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<National Technical Assistance for Children’s Mental Health
Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development
3307 M Street, NW, Suite 401
Washington, DC 20007
Phone: 202-687-5000
Fax: 202-687-1954
Web site: http://gucdc.georgetown.edu//index.html
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<Phyllis Magrab, Ph.D.
Director
Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development
E-mail: magrabp@georgetown.edu
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<Gary Macbeth, M.S.W.
Director
National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health
E-mail: gfm5@georgetown.edu
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<Joan M. Dodge, Ph.D.
Senior Policy Associate
E-mail: dodgej@georgetown.edu
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<Rachele Espiritu, Ph.D.
Senior Policy Associate for Research and Evaluation
E-mail: rce3@georgetown.edu
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<Tawara D. Goode, M.A.
Director
National Center for Cultural Competence
3300 Whitehaven Drive
Suite 3300
Washington, DC 20007
E-mail: tdg2@georgetown.edu
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<Neal Horen, Ph.D.
Senior Policy Associate
State Infrastructure Grant Program
E-mail: horenn@georgetown.edu
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<Vivian Jackson, LICSW
Senior Policy Associate
Cultural Competence Initiative
3300 Whitehaven Drive
Suite 3300
Washington, DC 20007
E-mail: vhj@georgetown.edu
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<Diane Jacobstein, Ph.D.
Psychologist and Developmental Disabilities Specialist
E-mail: jacobstd@georgetown.edu
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<Ellen B. Kagen, M.S.W.
Director
Communities Can!
E-mail: kageneb@georgetown.edu
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<Roxane Kaufmann, M.A.
Director
Early Childhood Policy
E-mail: kaufmanr@georgetown.edu
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<Jan McCarthy, M.S.W.
Director
Child Welfare Policy
E-mail: jrm33@gunet.georgetown.edu
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<Joyce Sebian
Senior Policy Associate for Violence Prevention
E-mail: jks29@georgetown.edu
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<Elizabeth Waetzig, J.D.
Director
Conflict Management Program
E-mail: ezw@georgetown.edu
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To order publications, call Mary Deacon, Publications Manager, at
202-687-8803.
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