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

ATTC's Pearls of Wisdom: Training & Trainer Evolution – COVID’s Lasting Impact

Published: 06/01/2023

By Paul Warren, LMSW, Research Project Director at the New York State Psychiatric Institute The COVID-19 pandemic forced and expedited the use of technology to provide services, training, and technical assistance (TA) on an unprecedented scale across the globe, in all professions. From our present vantage point, trainers and TA Providers may wonder “Will SUD […]

ATTC’s Pearls of Wisdom: Innovative partnerships + hard work help tackle stimulant use in the Western U.S. & beyond

Published: 05/18/2023

By: Beth A. Rutkowski, MPH, co-director, Pacific Southwest ATTC I’ll never forget the first time we met Tom Donohoe back in spring 2004. Tom is a colleague from the UCLA Department of Family Medicine and Director of the LA Region of the HRSA-funded Pacific AIDS Education and Training Center (PAETC). UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs […]

NIATx in New Places: Building Capacity for Effective School-Based Suicide Prevention

Published: 05/09/2023

By: Maureen Fitzgerald and Sarah McMinn Sarah McMinn, LCSW, joined the Great Lakes MHTTC team in 2018 to lead the School-Based Mental Health Supplement. In her previous work as clinical program manager for a Colorado agency, Sarah had worked with homeless families and mental health clinicians. She had also helped launch a family and child […]

ATTC's Pearls of Wisdom: Driving Integrated Knowledge Transfer and Implementation Via Collaboration

Published: 05/04/2023

By Oscar Morgan, Central East ATTC Since joining the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network in 2001, the Central East ATTC has endeavored to provide training and technical assistance (T/TA) that includes promoting gender, racial, sexual orientation equity, and cultural considerations. In addition to influencing people's experiences in the behavioral health system, these diverse identity […]

Reckoning harm reduction with Twelve Step recovery: Who’s “in the room(s)”?

Published: 04/25/2023

By Kim Gannon and Emily Pasman, guest authors Twelve Step programs are ubiquitous in the US substance use disorder (SUD) treatment landscape. For many, they provide a powerful forum of life transformation, fulfillment, and purpose. We are two such people: two statistically rare cases (Dodes & Dodes, 2015) who have successfully found long-term recovery from […]

ATTC’s Pearls of Wisdom: Address Challenges with a Collaborative Spirit and an Eye on the Big Picture

Published: 04/20/2023

By Pamela Woll, Southeast ATTC, based on interviews with Center leadership. In SAMHSA Region 4, the Southeast ATTC has learned that overwhelming challenges call for openness, broad vision, collaboration, creativity, flexibility, and a willingness to reach out at every level for ideas that will help us build hope and support recovery. Region Four has eight […]

NIATx in New Places: Research and Innovation in Professional Coaching with NIATx

Published: 04/11/2023

By: James H. Ford II, PhD, FACHE, LFHIMSS Dr. Jay Ford is an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His teaching and research focus on the dissemination, implementation, and sustainment of organizational change in multiple healthcare environments, including acute care, behavioral health, and long-term care. He was also a […]

ATTC’s Pearls of Wisdom: The Legacy and Future of the NIATx Model and the Great Lakes ATTC

Published: 04/06/2023

By Todd Molfenter, PhD, director of Great Lakes ATTC, MHTTC, & PTTC How can I successfully make “organizational change?” This is the fundamental question that started the NIATx movement. Simply stated, NIATx is a set of tools and techniques used to make organizational change: whether it be improving the admissions process, implementing an evidence-based clinical […]

ATTC’s Pearls of Wisdom: Learning from Indigenous Ways of Knowing

Published: 03/16/2023

By Meg Schneider, communications coordinator, National American Indian/Alaska Native ATTC "I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a man to depend simply upon himself." - Lone Man (Isna-la-wica), Teton Sioux Western science has relatively recently come to understand the importance of social wellness in promoting better physical, mental, emotional, […]

NIATx in New Places: Building Cultural Intelligence and Health Equity

Published: 03/14/2023

By: Alfredo Cerrato, Senior Cultural and Workforce Development Officer, Great Lakes ATTC/PTTC/MHTTC NIATx has been a vehicle for innovation since introducing process improvement tools and techniques to substance use disorder treatment organizations in 2003. The five NIATx principles combined with the essential NIATx tools have transformed approaches to treatment access and retention for countless organizations […]

ATTC's Pearls of Wisdom: Centering marginalized voices in the change process

Published: 03/02/2023

By Maureen Nichols, South Southwest ATTC, Jessica Jarvis, South Southwest ATTC, Dawn Tyus, African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence, Susie Villalobos, National Hispanic and Latino ATTC In 2021, following the promotion of the ATTC Network’s new core curriculum on stimulants, the South Southwest ATTC received a request from our region’s substance use treatment and recovery […]

NIATx in New Places

Published: 02/21/2023

By: Mat Roosa, LCSW-R NIATx launched in 2003 and has been supporting process improvement change efforts ever since. The NIATx in New Places blog series will share the experiences of NIATx practitioners old and new. We will learn how NIATx has been rebooted and repurposed in many new settings, and how it continues to have […]

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 […]

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