Pacific Southwest ATTC Launches 3-Year Implementation and Process Improvement Technical Assistance Capacity Initiative

January 8, 2019


Michael S. Shafer, Ph.D.
Pacific Southwest ATTC

Facilitating patient change is a core essential skill of effective behavioral health care. Facilitating organizational change is a core essential element of implementing evidence-based practices and other practice improvement strategies designed to promote patient change.

Beginning January 22-24, 2019, and continuing over the course of the next three years, the Pacific Southwest ATTC will launch a major regional initiative to develop technical assistance capacity in behavioral health agencies throughout its region. The initiative consists of two inter-related parts: The Change Facilitation Workshop and the Facilitator’s Community of Practice. The workshop is a three-day, residential immersive learning experience.

New England ATTC: Leadership Development Program

December 19, 2018
New England ATTC

By 2024, 1 in 4 members of the United States workforce will be 55 years or older, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. This is more than double the rate in 1994, when workers over 55 only accounted for 12% of the workforce. In the short-term, organizations often benefit from having an older workforce: older workers bring advanced knowledge, experience, and skill. But in the longer-term, organizations need to prepare for the impending retirement of substantial numbers of “baby boomers” in leadership positions. In the addiction treatment and recovery field, concerns about the aging workforce are compounded by the acuity of the overdose epidemic, high rates of staff turnover, and the rapidly changing behavioral healthcare landscape. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop a new generation of addiction treatment and recovery leaders.

Building Healthy Native Communities: National American Indian & Alaska Native ATTC

December 11, 2018

Jeff Ledolter & Anne Helene Skinstad
National American Indian & Alaska Native Addiction Technology Transfer Center

On November 14, 2018, the National American Indian & Alaska Native Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC), Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC), and Prevention Technology Transfer Centers (PTTC) gathered at the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health for its fifth annual symposium titled “Building Healthy Native Communities.” After a blessing from Robert Begay, MA, a member of the Navajo Nation and the Advisory Council for the three centers, native guest speakers from across the nation came together to discuss the issues facing native communities today.

Building Rural and Technology Literacy Skills

December 11, 2018

Nancy Roget
Thomasine Heitkamp
Joyce Hartje
Mountain Plains Addiction Technology Transfer Center

Since its inception in 1993 (one of the original ATTCs), what is now the Mountain Plains ATTC has focused on creating research-based SUD treatment/recovery products that can easily be inserted into existing curricula by behavior health faculty, which helps make research functionally relevant within the context of a discipline. Typically, these Curriculum Infusion Products (CIPs) include PowerPoint slides, videos, classroom exercises, and case scenarios.  Recently, the Mountain Plains ATTC created a new product called Slide Decks for You (Slidedecks4you), which is a shorter version of the CIPs. Both types of products are available on the Mountain Plains ATTC website.

Building a Science of Recovery: The Pinnacle ATTC Achievement?

November 6, 2018

Mike Flaherty, PhD
Founder, Institute for Research, Education, and Training in the Addictions
Former Director, Northeast ATTC

In 25 years of service to our nation, providers, and the public, the Addiction Technology Transfer Center Network (ATTC) has achieved many accomplishments capable of being referred to as its “pinnacle” achievement. Indeed, reaching 25 years itself via SAMHSA support and guidance as a “model” to bring science into adopted practice, while building workforce development, advancing innovation in prevention and more recently mental health could each be peak accomplishments. The ATTCs, regional beacons of “what works” taken to those who “need to know”and “can do something with it” are without parallel in any other nation of the world. Universities and institutions of higher learning would do well to emulate them.