NORTHWEST FRONTIER: Services for substance use and mental disorders vary greatly among the US affiliated Pacific Islands. For smaller islands prevention, community outreach and recovery management work well. Larger islands have an expanded continuum of services, including outpatient care. Only on the largest islands like Guam and Saipan will you find community based residential services. In addition to the variability in service design, there are significant cultural differences from one island group to the next. Local customs, beliefs, traditional healing practices, and social structures all need to be understood in order to provide relevant technical assistance and training. As you can imagine, this is a huge challenge.
During 2009, with a supplemental award from CSAT, NFATTC is collaborating with several Pacific Island jurisdictions on workforce development initiatives. Requests have been made for help with clinical supervision, motivational interviewing, and screening and brief intervention. In addition, some jurisdictions are moving forward with developing certificates and tracks within community college human service programs to prepare addiction workers.
One of our projects is to support an outstanding community college addictions counseling faculty member during her winter and spring term sabbatical as she provides technical assistance and training in American Samoa and Palau. She will be assisting local community colleges in the development of curricula and instructors, collaborating with existing substance abuse and mental health program managers, and providing in-service training for supervisors and line staff. NFATTC will then continue her work in an attempt to develop sustainable local resources over the next 3 years. We will keep you posted on our progress.

MID-AMERICA: Mid-America ATTC has begun the 2009 Leadership Institute process. Invitations to participate in the Institute have been distributed through the SSA offices in Mid-America’s five-state region. The deadline for nominations and applications is January 9, 2009. Interviews with all applicants and the person who nominated them will be held in January and protégés will be chosen by mid-February. The Mid-America ATTC Immersion Training is scheduled to be held March 30 – April 3, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. For more information contact Deborah Rockford at rockfordd@umkc.edu or 816.482.1175.

GREAT LAKES: To help fill the gap between the expertise of recovery support specialists and the complex needs of their clients, Great Lakes consultant Pamela Woll is developing a new workshop called Why Recovery Isn’t Simple: Understanding and Supporting People With Complex Challenges. read full discription

NATIONAL OFFICE: The ATTC Consolidated Network Website Tools & Resources page is now posted on the intranet. Features on this page include links to the Google Analytics Web Site and a downloadable PDF file of the ATTC Network Website - Regional Center Section Administration Guidebook. For more information please contact Erin Fridley.

GREAT LAKES: Great Lakes is offering two days’ worth of workforce development workshops, using the self-study workbook The Magnet: A Plan for Aligning Purpose and Professional Practice to help trainees explore and refine their career directions. Magnet author and Great Lakes consultant Pamela Woll will lead these workshops at the Great Lakes headquarters in Chicago February 26 and 27. Illinois TASC is co-sponsoring these events. Please contact Tiffany Kilpatrick, tiffanyk@uic.edu for more information.

GREAT LAKES: As part of Michigan’s ongoing recovery-oriented system of care (ROSC) transformation, this is the second county to launch its (ROSC) system change effort. On March 13, 2009,in Grand Rapids, MI, the Great Lakes Director will join with the Michigan SSA to present national, state and local strategies and activities related to recovery-based approaches. read full discription

GREAT LAKES: At the request of the Ohio SSA Great Lakes will help to increase the use of Motivational Interviewing within the state’s treatment provider system including ATR and criminal justice treatment providers. MINTEE trainers delivered the first in a series of Motivational Interviewing foundational workshops on December 15-17, 2008 in Columbus, Ohio. read full discription

PRAIRIELANDS: IC&RC Written Exam Review training presented by Duane Mackey, is being held at University Center at the Southeast Technical Institute Campus in Sioux Falls, SD. January 23-24, 2009. For more information or to register, please email Lois Wellsfry at pattc@usd.edu or phone 605-677-5644. read full discription

PRAIRIELANDS: Prairielands ATTC will be hosting a Training of Trainers, February 4-6, 2009, with focus on "A Provider’s Introduction to Substance Abuse Treatment for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Individuals". Trainers interested in participating should contact their regional ATTC. The training will be held in California. Plans are being secured to host additional Training of Trainers in the spring and fall of 2009 in South Carolina and Texas respectively.

GREAT LAKES: Great Lakes consultant Pamela Woll will be presenting on veterans and trauma in a number of venues in the next few months, including Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, IL (January 16), the Illinois Provider Association (IADDA) in Springfield and Chicago (February 9 and 11), the Ohio Directors Conference in Columbus (March 4), the Illinois Certification Association Conference (IAODAPCA) in Itasca (March 25), and the Virginia Summer Institute for Addiction Studies in Norfolk (July 21 and 22). read full discription

GREAT LAKES: Great Lakes is a participating ATTC in the CSAT-funded NIATx/ATTC Process Improvement Learning Collaborative Pilot taking place from December, 2008 through September, 2009. Our payer/co-sponsor in this effort is Detroit’s Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Recovery/Department of Health and Wellness Promotion. read full discription

GREAT LAKES: Under a sub award from the American International Health Alliance (AIHA), a cooperative agreement through the Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA), Great Lakes is implementing the first substance abuse Twinning Center Partnership with the Department of Substance Abuse, Prevention and Rehabilitation (DSAPR), Zanzibar, Africa. read full discription

MID-AMERICA: Mid-America ATTC is providing training and technical assistance on Motivational Interviewing to rural/frontier area agencies in Kansas and Oklahoma in 2009. A component of this MI infrastructure development project includes an evaluation study to examine factors that affect implementation of Motivational Interviewing and whether or not clinicians actually use Motivational Interviewing in their work. read full discription

Nothing additional to report