About NTI Training

 

Be part of a system change for children, youth, and families!

The National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI) has developed two state-of-the-art, standardized, web-based trainings to build the capacity of child welfare and mental health professionals in all states, tribes, and territories to effectively support children, youth, and their foster, adoptive, and guardianship families.

The NTI aligned trainings provide the skills, strategies, and tools professionals need to:

  • Support children to heal from trauma and loss.
  • Provide parents with skills to parent more effectively.
  • Collaborate effectively with child welfare and mental health professionals.
  • Improve outcomes for permanency, child well-being, and family well-being and stability.

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What is the Goal of NTI Training?

NTI was designed to help you better understand and address the mental health needs of children, youth and their families moving toward or having achieved permanency through adoption or guardianship. It also seeks to improve collaboration between the child welfare and mental health service systems with shared language and aligned curricula. NTI aims to improve the outcomes by infusing enhanced permanency, adoption and mental health competency in the provision of casework and clinical practice.

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Why is Specialized Training Needed?

Because of traumatic life experiences and early losses, many children who are adopted, in guardianship or in foster care, experience elevated risks for developmental, health, emotional, and behavioral challenges.

The impact of these experiences and challenges compromises well-being and family stability, for example:

  • The American Academy of Pediatrics (2015) estimates up to 80% of children come into foster care with a significant mental health need.
  • 40% of youth adopted from foster care are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD with high incidence of pre-natal drug/alcohol exposure (Smith, 2006).
  • Adoptive families utilize clinical services at triple the rate reported by families formed by birth. (Howard, Smith & Ryan, 2004; Vandivere, Malm & Radel, 2009).
  • Foster/adoptive parents reported 1/3 of children had emotional problems and 40% had educational problems. (Festinger, 2006).

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These problems are magnified by the fact that many behavioral health professionals do not receive adequate training in the needs of foster, adoptive and guardianship children. 

 

Learn more in the Rudd Adoption Research Program paper, “Building an Adoption Competent Workforce: A Review of the National Adoption Competency”

Authored by: Director of NTI, Dawn Wilson, the CEO of the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.), Debbie Riley, and University of Maryland School of Social Work researcher, Bethany Lee.

Why is the NTI Training Provided at No Cost?

NTI was funded through a cooperative agreement (#90CO1121) between the Children’s Bureau, and the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.) working alongside the University of Maryland School of Social Work, Institute for Innovation and Implementation.

“NTI offers an easy-to-use and comprehensive overview of the unique issues of children in adoption and foster care placement.  Many adoptive families share that therapists lacking adoption competence training can, at times, do more harm than good.  I have found there is very little substantive training like NTI available today.”

David Brodzinsky

NTI Advisor, Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychology, Rutgers University

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Frequently Asked Questions
Funded through the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau, Grant #90CO1121.
The contents of this website do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the funder, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
NTI provides a foundational understanding of the core issues impacting children and youth and their foster, adoptive, and guardianship families, including the impact of loss and trauma on attachment, brain development, and behavior. NTI also provides strategies and tools that parents and caregivers can use to support their child’s healing and strengthening of attachment. NTI is also exploring the possibility of creating an adaption for parents/caregivers.

NTI provides a foundational understanding of the core issues impacting children and youth and their foster, adoptive, and guardianship families, including the impact of loss and trauma on attachment, brain development, and behavior. This understanding can assist school social workers, school counselors, and educators to understand youth behavior in the context of the child’s early experiences and provide strategies to support the child, youth and family.

NTI has a new training adaption for educators: School-based Mental Health Professionals Training. Schools and school districts can get free resources to support the well-being of K-12 students!

NTI provides a foundational understanding of the core issues impacting children and youth and their foster, adoptive, and guardianship families, including the impact of loss and trauma on attachment, brain development, and behavior as well as the connection between early adverse experiences and current functioning and physical and emotional health.

NTI is also exploring the possibility of creating an adaption for medical professionals.

NTI provides a foundational understanding of the core issues impacting children and youth and their foster, adoptive, and guardianship families, including the impact of loss and trauma on attachment, brain development, and behavior. This knowledge will help inform permanency placement decisions.

NTI is also exploring the possibility of creating an adaption for court officials.

The Training for Child Welfare Professionals will assist CASA and GAL volunteers and staff to understand the impact of trauma, loss and grief, breaks in attachment, identity formation, on children and youth as well as the specific challenges experienced by transracial/transcultural families
Social workers interact with individuals and families who have experienced adoption in many different settings. NTI provides a foundational understanding on the unique and core issues of adoption to better meet the needs of children, youth and families in foster, adoptive, guardianship and kinship relationships.

Children and youth experiencing foster care and adoption are over-represented in RTCs and are often misdiagnosed or prescribed psychotropic medications for symptoms that relate to trauma experiences and unresolved loss and grief. NTI training will prepare staff to understand and address the issues relating to loss, grief, trauma, breaks in attachment, identity formation, etc.

Children and youth experiencing foster care and adoption are often misdiagnosed or over-prescribed psychotropic medications when their symptoms relate to trauma experiences and unresolved loss and grief. NTI will prepare staff to understand and address the issues relating to loss, grief, trauma, breaks in attachment, identity formation, etc... that children in foster care, adoption or guardianship may be experiencing. NTI also creates system change by improving collaboration between the child welfare and mental health service systems through aligned curriculum that uses shared language and provides understanding about the impact of loss and trauma on attachment and behavior.

NTI provides a foundational understanding of the core issues impacting children and youth and their foster, adoptive, and guardianship families. NTI also creates system change by improving collaboration between the child welfare and mental health service systems through aligned curriculum that uses shared language and provides understanding about the impact of loss and trauma on attachment and behavior.

Adoption is a lifelong journey and the core issues of adoption can impact the family through developmental stages from childhood into adulthood.  NTI provides training to increase the knowledge, values and skills critical to understanding and supporting families post adoption to enhance family stability and well-being.

NTI provides a foundational understanding of the core issues impacting children and youth and their foster and adoptive families, including the impact of loss and trauma on attachment, brain development, and behavior. NTI provides strategies for addressing the loss and grief issues inherent in adoption (for all members of the triad) and how important is it to prepare families for developmental challenges ahead.

NTI provides staff across the child welfare continuum with free training that focuses on understanding the impact of loss and trauma on attachment and behavior. NTI provides effective strategies for working with children, youth, and parents to address the challenges that often lead to placement changes in foster care and disruption or dissolution in adoption.

NTI provides free online training that is consistent with FFPSA requirements for a skilled, competent, trauma-informed workforce and addresses several CFSR indicators. Because it is web-based, NTI is accessible to staff throughout your jurisdiction on-demand.

NTI also creates system change by improving collaboration between the child welfare and mental health service systems through aligned curricula that uses shared language and provides shared understanding about the impact of loss and trauma on attachment and behavior.

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