Oklahoma DHS Hosting NTI Training for all Child Welfare and Mental Health Professionals Statewide!
The Oklahoma Dept. of Human Services (OKDHS) first piloted the NTI Child Welfare Professionals and Child Welfare Supervisors trainings in 2017. It continues to utilize the NTI training for onboarding of new staff as well as refreshers for all staff who work in foster care and adoption.
The initial launch mandated all Foster Care and Adoption Supervisors and Specialists (719 employees) to complete the NTI training, while some designated employees participated in coaching sessions to support the application of the material to practice. Three volunteer coaches with clinical mental health backgrounds and in-depth knowledge and experience from working with foster and adoptive families led the coaching sessions. They were held every two weeks as staff completed each module. With this opportunity to discuss the training material and process best ways to apply it to their everyday practice, staff reported an increase in knowledge gain and overall effectiveness of the training.
Robin Gibson, Field Administrator for Adoption Transition stated, “The NTI training is so foundational to my staff’s work with children and youth transitioning to permanency and adulthood; we use it as part of our onboarding process. No other training integrates these topics and treatment modalities as NTI does in a format that’s not only easy to follow, but also easy to refer back to as needed.”
OKDHS is in the process of embedding NTI onto the state’s LMS system to continue providing the training for all child welfare staff as well as mental health professionals across the state. Watch a video interview about a private agency in Oklahoma using NTI training with staff: Leslie Keenan, Executive Director at Family Hope House, shares how NTI Training gives a framework to utilize best practices for healthy permanency outcomes.
For more info about the Oklahoma NTI experience, please email Bonni Goodwin, Statewide Coordinator of Adoption Preservation Services at bgoodwin@ou.edu. Learn more about NTI trainings: https://bit.ly/36YU6XZ
