The ATTC/NIATx Service Improvement Blog - Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network

ATTC's Pearls of Wisdom: Investing Soundly By Building the Substance Use Disorder Workforce

Published: 02/16/2023

By Nancy A. Roget, MS and Cindy Juntunen, PhD, Mountain Plains ATTC According to Benjamin Franklin, “For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head.” This is sound advice and one that SAMHSA has followed through its funding of the Addiction Technology Transfer Centers (ATTCs). The ATTCs emphasize preparing the SUD […]

ATTC’s Pearls of Wisdom: Relationship building starts with ‘listening’

Published: 02/02/2023

By Catelyn Holmes, for the Mid-America ATTC If there’s one thing Pat Stilen has learned in her decades’ long career, it’s the value of building relationships, and that starts by listening. “Building relationships and listening, that makes all the difference in the world,” she said. Stilen, a social worker, retired from her […]

Embracing Change: A System Framework for Visualizing Change

Published: 12/15/2022

By Maureen Nichols, South Southwest ATTC director Much of the work by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center network and their partners in behavioral health care systems focuses on making changes that improve the lives and health of communities, families, and individuals. Examples include providing intensive training, feedback and coaching to counselors working in substance use […]

Embracing Change: How to Infuse Technical Assistance with NIATx Process Improvement Principles

Published: 12/01/2022

By: Kristina Spannbauer, Communications Specialist for the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, & PTTC One of the greatest aspects of NIATx process improvement is the adaptability of this model. Over the past several years, the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC have developed hybrid training series integrating NIATx principles with other in-demand technical assistance (TA) and […]

Embracing Change: Using Native Ways of Knowing to Combat the Opioid Crisis

Published: 11/17/2022

By Meg Schneider, TOR Program Coordinator, National American Indian & Alaska Native ATTC Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2022 showed a 39 percent increase in drug overdose deaths for Native people from 2019 to 2020. Only Black people had a higher increase (44 percent). Drug overdose deaths hit a record in […]

Embracing Change: Providing Program Specific Harm Reduction Technical Assistance

Published: 11/04/2022

By Lisa Carter and Jill Eriksen, Mid-America ATTC and Katie Burk, Facente Consulting SAMHSA defines Harm Reduction as “a comprehensive approach to addressing substance use disorders through prevention, treatment, and recovery where individuals who use substances set their own goals. Harm reduction organizations incorporate a spectrum of strategies that meet people “where they are” on […]

Embracing Change: Audio-Only Telehealth: Expanding Access to SUD Treatment/Recovery Services

Published: 10/20/2022

By Nancy Roget, Cindy Juntunen & Trisha Dudkowski, Mountain Plains ATTC The onset of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) in 2020 forced many Substance Use Disorders (SUD) treatment and recovery support providers to rapidly switch to virtual and/or telephone-based services. For some providers, as their proficiency and confidence grew, their adoption of videoconferencing and […]

Embracing Change: Mapping Problems and Solutions in Troubled Times—The South Carolina Cognitive Behavior Therapy Training Initiative

Published: 10/06/2022

By Pamela Woll, Southeast Addiction Technology Transfer Center Like much of the substance use disorders (SUD) treatment field, South Carolina’s providers experienced the early impact of COVID-19 as a steep rise in the need for services combined with a steep decline in capacity to meet that need. In communities, fear, isolation, loneliness, and financial stress […]

Embracing Change – Diversity and Connectivity in behavioral health

Published: 09/15/2022

By Dr. Susie Villalobos, Director, National Hispanic and Latino Addiction & Prevention Technology Transfer Centers The lives and livelihoods of many Hispanic and Latino Americans were deeply affected by the impact of COVID-19. The spotlight reminded us of the continued racial and ethnic inequalities in health and healthcare. The quality, experience, and access remain stagnant […]

Embracing Change: This Recovery Month, BHPs should take steps to recover from burnout

Published: 09/01/2022

By Alexander Waitt, co-project director, Central East ATTC As we recognize Recovery Month, let’s take a moment to talk about burnout in the helping profession, and what we can do to help Behavioral Health Professionals “recover” from the pandemic and its fallout. People are leaving the helping profession left and right, and there isn’t a […]

Embracing Change: Leading Through Change - Essential Skills for Managers in Behavioral Health Settings

Published: 08/18/2022

By Beth Rutkowski, MPH, and Michael Shafer, Ph.D. Behavioral health and recovery support professionals operate within interdisciplinary, multi-professional teams of providers. Behavioral health professionals frequently find themselves serving as site managers, team leaders, shift leads, clinical supervisors, and other middle-management positions. In these positions, behavioral health professionals are often called upon to perform tasks and […]

NIATx Model Featured in Newly Released Classroom WISE Training Discussion Guide

Published: 08/11/2022

By: Kristina Spannbauer, Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC Communications Specialist The Great Lakes Mental Health Technology Transfer Center School-based Supplement (SB-MHTTC) recently published a companion discussion guide for the Classroom WISE training program. Classroom WISE is a free, self-paced online course for educators and school staff that focuses on increasing mental health literacy in […]

Embracing Change: The Fluidity of Evidence-Based SBIRT

Published: 08/04/2022

By Diana Padilla, CLC, CARC, CASAC-T, on behalf of Northeast & Caribbean ATTC The SBIRT Framework Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment, also referred to as SBIRT, is an evidence-based practice designed to intervene with people who are at risk of health and psychosocial consequences stemming from their risky levels of alcohol consumption and/or […]

Embracing Change: How Northwest ATTC is Helping Programs Enhance Their Co-occurring Disorder Services – A Model for Success

Published: 07/21/2022

By Denna Vandersloot, co-director, Northwest Addiction Technology Transfer Center Many clients seeking care for their substance use disorder also have co-occurring mental health disorders – and vice versa. Treating both types of conditions at the same time by providing quality integrated services is more effective than treating each disorder separately. Yet while integrated care has […]

Embracing Change: Diversity Inclusion Project Showcase (DIPS) Promotes Recovery Community Organizations

Published: 07/07/2022

Editor's note: This post is part of the ATTC Network's "Embracing Change" series. The work to curb the impact of opioid use disorder and other forms of addiction is diverse and expansive. However, one fundamental portion of the effort comes via Recovery Community Organizations (RCOs), which deliver needed recovery support services to community members from […]

SUD and Beyond: Schools Use NIATx To Improve Youth Suicide Prevention Efforts

Published: 06/14/2022

By: Kristina Spannbauer, Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, & PTTC Communications Specialist The NIATx model for process improvement was initially based on the question: Could the strategies used to improve processes in manufacturing and other industries be used to improve services in other fields, such as in substance use disorder (SUD), mental health, and educational settings? […]

A Glimpse of New York State’s Program to Address Hepatitis C and SUD

Published: 05/17/2022

Public health officials in New York State have launched a new learning collaborative aiming to integrate Hepatitis C testing and treatment into Opioid Treatment Programs. One of the ATTC Network's products, Guide to Integrating HCV Services into Opioid Treatment Programs, played a key role in helping launch the collaborative. Here's our Q&A with Mehvish Bhatti, project […]

Alcohol is STILL a Drug

Published: 04/14/2022

April was first designated as Alcohol Awareness Month in 1987 to increase public awareness about the prevention and treatment of alcohol use disorder—which remains a tenacious public health concern in the U.S. For decades, substance use disorder (SUD) treatment focused on alcohol use disorder (Kinney, 2021). “Gradually, other substances such as freebase cocaine, crack cocaine, […]

Five Obstacles to Providing Substance Use & Mental Health Services for Black Americans

Published: 04/08/2022

Black people in the United States have rates of mental health conditions and substance use comparable to the general population. Yet outcomes for Black/African American people are poorer overall compared to the general population. A recent study found that older Black men were dying of opioid overdose at a rate four times greater than the […]

Recruit-Hire-Retain: Navigating COVID-19 staffing challenges in behavioral healthcare

Published: 02/25/2022

Mat Roosa, LCSW-R NIATx Coach “Our program is fully staffed with a diverse and skilled team. Our team members usually stay for a long time, but when a staff member does leave, we are able to quickly hire a qualified replacement.” How many of today’s leaders in behavioral health can make such a claim? Could […]

Change Project 911 In Review

Published: 01/19/2022

Thank you for coming along on this Change Project 911 journey with Mat Roosa, the guest blogger for the series. Below you will find a list of all the Change Project 911 NIATx series with a short blurb. Select the title to read the full content of each blog. Help! My Project is Dragging on […]

Change Project 911: No Time for a Change Project: Finding Time vs. Making Choices

Published: 01/03/2022

Mat Roosa, LCSW-R NIATx Coach “The change seems like a good idea, but we just don’t have the time to do it. Let’s come back to this next year when we have more resources." No time for a change project: Finding time vs. making choices Why do so many good change ideas end up at […]

A Storied Career: Interview with 2021 NAADAC Enlightenment Award Winner, Mark Sanders

Published: 12/15/2021

Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC, is the Illinois State Project Manager for the Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, and PTTC. Mark is a published author, trainer, educator, and mentor, as well as the founder of the Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment, and Recovery and the co-founder of Serenity Academy of Chicago, the only recovery high school in […]

Change Project 911: Unable to sustain a change

Published: 11/19/2021

Mat Roosa, LCSW-R NIATx Coach “It’s easy to quit drinking. I’ve done it a thousand times.” W.C. Fields Change is easy. Sustaining change is not so easy. This is true for personal changes like quitting smoking, exercising more, driving slower, or keeping the house more organized. It is also true for workplace systems changes, such […]

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