8 New Pilot State Sites Announced for Launch of National Training Initiative

C.A.S.E. is excited to announce that with the support of the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services, we have chosen 8 states to participate in the National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative
(NTI) pilot.

These states will implement and pilot two state of the art, web-based trainings for child welfare professionals and mental health practitioners. We are also in the process of identifying tribal partners to serve as a pilot site.

The pilot states provide a representative sample and were selected following a rigorous review of jurisdictional scans and phone conversations to assess capacity/readiness for implementation and the fit of NTI with current practice improvements. The goal of the pilot is to help states infuse the adoption mental health competencies into the practice of child welfare professionals and mental health practitioners and to integrate training into their training systems.

The pilot states are:
• Arizona
• California
• Illinois
• Maine
• Minnesota
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Washington

We are also excited to introduce three Implementation Specialists who will be assigned to states. These dedicated Implementation Specialists will be working with the states listed above to provide implementation planning and technical and implementation assistance to build capacity and readiness for implementation and piloting of the web-based training, which is scheduled to begin in January 2017. Meet our new Implementation Specialists:

Lisa Maynard, LMSW co-founded and co-directed the Adoption Resource Network, INC and then served as the director of Adoption Services for Hillside Children’s Center in Rochester NY. She also served as faculty for the Hunter College School of Social Work Post-Graduate Certificate in Adoption Therapy. She will implement NTI in Arizona, Maine, Minnesota.

Joanne Trinkle, MSW, worked most recently as the Director of Special Projects for New York State Office of Children and Family Services, serving as a subject matter expert for child well-being and trauma-informed care and assisting with the Child and Family Services Review process. She also served as director of the Sidney Albert Training and Research Institute at Parsons Child and Family Center and was the founding director of Camp to Belong New York. She will implement NTI in California and Washington.

Mary Wichansky, LCSW-C, most recently worked as the Program Director for Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) with the National Council for Behavioral Health in Washington, D.C. where she worked to implement MHFA in communities. She also served as director of Parent and Child Clinical Services with Lourie Center and oversaw early intervention services with Montgomery County Health and Human Services in Maryland. She will implement NTI in Illinois, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Looking for additional information? Please contact C.A.S.E.’s NTI Director Dawn Wilson.