During NTI Training – Tool Tip #2

A. During training, ask staff to predict possible on-the-job learning applications as they complete individual modules.

• How do you think the content in this module can be applied in your daily practice?
• What skills embedded in the NTI Training can be applied in your daily practice?
• What new knowledge that this training provides has on-the-job learning application?

 

B. Provide adequate repetition, practice and feedback to prepare staff for implementation of new skills and multiple activities that reinforce the same skill set.

NTI’s TIP SHEETS and the Supervisor Coaching and Activity Guide provide many examples that can be used to implement and reinforce new skills. Some include:

 

Child Welfare Professionals Training

Model and teach therapeutic parenting strategies to promote Attunement and Felt Safety (Module 3). Have workers identify an adoption or guardianship case and discuss ways in which parents are building trust and promoting “felt safety” for their child.

Explore and discuss the impact of learner’s own biases on their work with children, youth, and families (Module 4)

• Have workers complete the bias activity, How Diverse is Your Universe? and discuss the impact the results may have on their work.
• Share examples of times when workers called out bias or were concerned that bias impacted decisions for children or families.

 

Mental Health Professionals Training

Explore Identity Formation and the Impact of Adoption and Guardianship (Module 7)

• Review Searching for Birth Relatives resource and explore possible responses and repercussions that youth may experience in your practice
• Choose a youth from your practice, identify issues where adopted youth and their parents may get stuck (Lessons 2 and 5) and write a new treatment plan.

 

Social Workers share:

“I feel NTI is critically needed education for pre-adoptive parents or post adoption families about how trauma and losses impact a child. Reinforcing the need for therapy at the various stages of the child’s development.”

“NTI training strengthened me and helped me look through a trauma and attachment informed, developmental lens and supporting families through a family systems and strengths-based approach. It gave me more tools to support common challenges with adoption related grief and loss, and identity.”

 

C. Use authentic and meaningful tasks that harness staff’s existing knowledge (role playing, real life scenarios to connect training concepts to their home or work).

NTI’s TIP SHEETS and the Supervisor Coaching and Activity Guide provide many examples that can be used to implement and reinforce new skills. Some include:

 

Child Welfare Professionals Training

• Discuss tool used to understand the Mental Health Needs of Children and Youth (Module 2). Have workers discuss the activities/tools they have been using to facilitate communication with children about their history and, have them share or demonstrate how they used these resources in a team meeting.
• Help Parents Support Children As They Experience Attachment and Separation (Module 3) Use Handout 3.1.1 with parents to help them recognize their child’s attachment style and develop secure attachments.

 

Mental Health Professionals Training

• Practice Using Therapeutic Strategies to Assess Challenging Behaviors (Module 9). Think of a family whose child is at risk of being placed outside the home and evaluate any common dynamics present and how dynamics will guide your response.
• Identify Risk Factors and Healing Supports: Family Stability and Wellness Post-Permanency (Module 10). Choose a family who has experienced a relationship breakdown, list key risk factors and determine what supports would have been helpful for healing.

 

Jan Dick–LCSW, Director of Child & Family Permanency, Family & Children’s Services, Nashville, Tennessee shares:

“Our state had some pretty good policies on sibling separation…as people were watching the curriculum, some shared, “Oh, my gosh, the importance of sibling relationships really came home to us partly through the videos and the hearing the words of children. And we’re really recommitting ourselves to ensuring that siblings maintain contact if they’re not placed together.”

 

D. Provide ways for trainees to support each other through feedback and discussion which can be facilitated by:

• Lunch Time Discussion Meeting
• Team/Group Discussion
• Case Review
• Role Play
• Team Activities
• Skill and Knowledge Application
• Observation

Robin Gibson, Adoption Manager, Oklahoma NTI Pilot Site shares:

“In all of my monthly team meetings, someone will bring a topic that they want to discuss that is either something that they’ve learned through NTI or they’ve practiced or built into the practice through NTI, and then we use it in our quarterly full-staff meetings to help a greater understanding.”

 

E. Give immediate individualized constructive feedback to workers who are completing or have completed NTI.

• Target the demonstrated skill and knowledge application
• Be specific with your feedback
• Provide feedback as often as possible
• Focus on progress

 

NTI Participants share:

“I really feel good about the training and it has been my experience that professionals working with kids with trauma are ill prepared. I believe that this is a travesty to the children and families who need us to be more competent to provide the best possible services and begin the process of healing. Let’s discuss and plan for getting this training to school personnel in our Public Schools.”
Program Director—Outreach

“NTI training strengthened me and helped me look through a trauma and attachment informed, developmental lens and supporting families through a family system and strengths-based approach. It reinforced collaborating with the workers and services around a youth and family. It gave me more tools to support common challenges with adoption related grief and loss, identity.”
Social Worker

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