February 4-6, 2020, 39 behavioral health professionals representing 13 agencies throughout HHS Region 9 gathered in Oakland, California for three days to participate in the PSATTC’s Organizational Process Improvement Initiative (OPII) Change Facilitator Academy... And then COVID-19 happened.

The recent COVID-19 health pandemic has accelerated the implementation of behavioral health services via remote technology, including telephone and video conferencing.  At the start of the response to the pandemic, South Southwest ATTC began receiving multiple requests from organizations across the region for immediate guidance on how to translate many of the strategies for remote technology on the ground in a rapid and timely manner... 

In February 2020, the National American Indian and Alaska Native ATTC hosted a regional technical assistance meeting in Oklahoma City for recipients of the Tribal Opioid Response grant. Doctors, nurses, grant managers, counselors, and other health professionals from 15 tribal health clinics in the surrounding states came together in a hotel conference room to talk about a common sickness in their comm­­unities: opioid use disorder.

The Mid-America ATTC developed an intensive technical assistance manual to be used by Technology Transfer Centers to facilitate trauma informed care (TIC) implementation in substance use and recovery service settings. To pilot the manual’s multi-faceted TIC implementation process, Mid-America conducted site visits to regional provider agencies expressing interest in becoming a TIC environment...

Mountain Plains ATTC recently worked with Dr. Scott Walters, a noted professor, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) researcher, and psychologist to develop a series of products and training/technical assistance activities. These products and activities were created for treatment and recovery support providers on how to create and implement one-way short message service (SMS) text messaging. The goal of implementing this innovation was to increase patient/peer engagement aligning with services like groups/individual sessions.