World Autism Awareness Month: Changing Lives One Person at a Time 

When I first learned about autism in 1999, my college textbook gave me exactly two paragraphs about a “disorder” that was estimated to be as prevalent as 1 in every 1000 individuals in the US. Today autism is considered as prevalent as 1 in every 37 individuals.

Upcoming Events: Youth Centered Care and Public Health

The 2022 TCOM Conference is the biggest event hosted by the Praed Foundation and the TCOM Team every year. This event typically has anywhere from 300 – 550 people in attendance each year. For this year’s conference, we will be hosting in-person presentations in New Orleans, LA at the JW Marriott New Orleans from September 21 – 23, 2022. We will also host our 3rd annual virtual Cloud Gathering from September 26 – 27, 2022 on the Webex Virtual Platform. To gear up for this event, we invite you to meet some of the faces that will be at this year’s TCOM Conference.

Call for Poster Abstracts for the 2022 TCOM Conference

We’re happy to announce that we are now accepting poster abstracts for the upcoming September TCOM Conference.
Posters at the 2022 TCOM Conference provide an opportunity for TCOM Collaborative members to share their insights and work surrounding Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management (TCOM) and TCOM Tools (e.g. CANS, ANSA, FAST, SSIT, CAT, RISE, etc.). If you have a topic unrelated to TCOM, you may still submit your abstract for review.

Making & Strengthening Connections: Strength Building Through Relationships

Social connections are positive relationships that provide emotional, informational, instrumental as well as spiritual support. The building of social connections has endless possibilities connected with transformational care planning. Collaborative solutions can develop when there are increased connections and relationships with others connected to an individual’s community. Strengthening connections often initiate a ‘rippling effect’, leading to increases in bonding relationships, recreational activities, and natural supports at all levels: individual, family, and community.

2022 TCOM Conference: New Virtual Ticket Pricing + Early Bird Ending Soon

2022 TCOM Conference attendees: We encourage you to go ahead and book your tickets and room now, as Early Bird (30% discount) pricing will be ending July 10, 2022. The 2-Day Cloud Gathering TCOM Conference ticket pricing has been discounted by more than 50% off. Now virtual ticket pricing has been adjusted from $90/ticket to $40/ticket. We are excited to see you there!

Are You A Change Maker, Change Embracer, Change Resistor?

The Praed Foundation recently explored how people change through a new podcast, “Shift Shift Bloom!”.
Through the podcast, we examined how people change, why they change, and how people sustain the changes that are most important to them in their everyday lives.
The ten-episode first season featured guests who consider themselves in one of three categories: change-makers, change embracers, or resistors of change. The guests on the podcast offered their personal stories of change, with themes of transgender identity (Jordan Constantine), fighting racism in historically racist institutions, (Dr. De Lacy D. Davis), child abuse survivor to advocate (Juliana Barton), and many more.

The TCOM Channel is Now a YouTube Partner

As many of you know, the IPH Center at the University of Kentucky and the Praed Foundation have created ‘The TCOM Channel’ on YouTube to facilitate improved communications about the good work happening in the international TCOM collaborative. Because of your interest and support, The TCOM Channel has become one of the 25% of the more than 500 million existing YouTube channels that has been successfully monetized. The TCOM Channel is now a YouTube Partner.

2022 TCOM Conference: Registration is Live!

The 2022 TCOM Conference registration will be taking place September 21 – 27, 2022 with an in-person and virtual option. Registration for the conference is now live!

TCOM Training Session | Workshop Event

The Praed Foundation will be hosting 2 virtual workshops. The first workshop, the 2-Day TCOM Orientation, will focus on the Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management (TCOM) philosophy, and the TCOM Tools (CANS, ANSA, FAST). The 2nd workshop hosted in July 2022 is a Certified Trainer Training, which will focus on creating training materials that represent the core concepts of communimetrics and the TCOM framework.

Hierarchies of Understanding & Need for Collaboration: Transformation on Person & Population Levels (2/2)

In the first part of this blog, Ken McGill talked about how a whole-person approach requires a broader perspective of “needs” and how collaboration is required for transformation at the individual and systems level. In part 2, Ken continues to discuss how this can be achieved. He focuses on how human complexities require collaborative solutions, and how it takes a team to heal a village.

Hierarchies of Understanding & Need for Collaboration: Transformation on Person & Population Levels (1/2)

Ken McGill discusses how the TCOM framework comprise a whole-person approach, and how the TCOM tools can be used to support a whole-person understanding of those we serve. He discusses the importance in understanding a person’s needs and strengths. He conceptualizes a more broad view of need through “Hierarchies of Understanding” and how the next step in Systems of Care is to ensure that collaboration efforts are strong enough to meet not only Maslow’s pyramid of needs, but also needs outside of the individuals and families.

Resiliency | TCOM Podcast

We are introducing both Michele McFadden and Cynthia Alpan, who were recently featured on the new TCOM podcast, “shift, shift…Bloom!“. Michele is a survivor of a hit-and-run accident where she was left with a traumatic brain injury. Cynthia is a financial advisor in Lebanon, a country that is struggling through one of the worst financial crises the world has ever seen. This podcast examines how people change, and to do this, we ask individuals who consider themselves change-makers, change embracers or change resistors to share their personal stories of transformation.

Ask A TCOM Trainer | New YouTube Series

We have started a new series, “Ask A TCOM Trainer” on our TCOM YouTube Channel. TCOM trainers from the Center for Innovation in Population Health and guests from across the TCOM world will weigh in on the topics that matter most to our community. Our goal with this series is to help people understand the TCOM tools and framework, and how TCOM can make a positive impact on others.

Power of Transformation | Juliana Barton

Our TCOM Podcast, “Shift, Shift, Bloom” shared part 2/2 of our interview with Juliana Barton. Juliana’s story of chronic abuse in her family was followed by a series of experiences with apathy and ineffectiveness in child welfare and public health care systems. Despite the challenges of dealing with flawed systems, Juliana was able to rise above them. Her story of resilience and working to give back to the systems that failed her and her family is as noble as it is tragic. We think her story will give you pause, but also it will give you hope and inspiration. Please join us in our journey to understand how people change.

What If Homelessness Was Not Just About Housing, But Also About Trauma Recovery?

You’re invited to attend a free seminar by the Center for Innovation in Population Health. This webinar will focus on the topic, “What if homelessness was not just about housing, but also about trauma recovery?”. Dr. Sarah Ascienzo and Dr. Natalie Pope will be discussing their innovative research surrounding homelessness. They will discuss their participants’ challenges they encountered when trying to free themselves from reoccurring homelessness. This topic could not be discussed without talking about their trauma.

Overcoming Adversity with Dr. De Lacy Davis | TCOM Champion

We will be starting a new series in which we highlight past TCOM award winners (TCOM Champions) for their work in the TCOM community. At the 2020 TCOM Conference, De Lacy Davis, EdD, won the TCOM Family Advocate Champion Award for his inspiring leadership in ensuring parents receive the help they need. Dr. Davis was also a keynote for the virtual 2021 TCOM Conference. He is the Director for the Family Support Organization of Union County and the Executive Director for the New Jersey Alliance of Family Support Organizations. He is also the founder and still leading the organization, Black Cops Against Police Brutality.

Children’s Health & Mental Wellbeing: Whole-Person Approach | Event

Just like physical health, mental health in childhood focuses on reaching developmental and emotional milestones, learning healthy social skills as well as how to cope when there are difficult situations. An important goal for all children is for them to be both physically and mentally healthy, so that they can have a positive quality of life-functioning well at home, in school, and in their communities. It is important that we remember that physical health is not just the absence of illness & disease and mental health is not simply the absence of a mental disorder.

The People Behind The Transformational Stories

We are introducing both Jordan Constantine and Rachel Faller, who were recently featured on the new TCOM podcast, “shift, shift…Bloom!”. This podcast examines how people change, and to do this, we ask individuals who consider themselves change makers, change embracers or change resistors to share their personal stories of transformation.

The TCOM Podcast: All About How People Change

The newly launched TCOM podcast, “shift, shift…Bloom!”, examines how people change, why they change, and how they sustain the changes that are most important to them in their everyday lives. The ten-episode first season features guests who consider themselves change makers and change embracers as well as those who identify as resistors of change — we’re all somewhere on that spectrum in different domains of our lives, aren’t we? You may listen to “shift, shift…Bloom!” on any platform you get your podcasts.

Data is Not a 4-Letter Word: A Clinician’s View of What It Really Is

Ken McGill shares his thoughts on utilizing data to drive care. Using the phrase, “Data is not a 4-letter word”, he hopes that this will spark meaningful conversation explaining TCOM to not only those in the behavioral and mental health field, but in all systems of care in which we connect with people.

Introducing the 2022 TCOM Conference Chairperson: Judy Howard

Judith Howard, LCSW is the Program Chairperson for the 2022 TCOM Conference: Managing Change and All that Jazz in New Orleans, LA. Judith shares her background, career, and journey with TCOM and CANS.

International TCOM Day

Happy TCOM Day to all and Happy Ground Hog Day as well. Ground Hog Day is a great time to celebrate the TCOM (Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management) work that we do. We think of Ground Hog Day as the official holiday of TCOM. Celebrate our International TCOM Day by subscribing to the TCOM YouTube Channel, get started on your recertification in the TCOM Tools, submit a proposal for our annual conference, or just reminding yourself of what the TCOM work is all about.

Research Opportunity: Teaming & Connectedness

Dr. John Lyons and Dr. Elizabeth Riley are initiating a program of research on effective teaming as a part of the IPH Center’s focus on collaboration. If you work in a team environment, we’d like to get your perspective and learn from your experience. The survey generally takes less than 10 minutes to complete. Thanks for considering participating.

Want to Work with the TCOM Team?

Join us at the Center for Innovation in Population Health! We are expanding and will soon be accepting applications for various positions. Our team provides training, research, and implementation support for organizations that utilize the Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management (TCOM) framework. This framework is primarily used in systems of care, such as child welfare, behavioral health, juvenile justice, and other complex systems.

Oregon’s Role in the National Partnership for Child Safety

Oregon Department of Human Services, along with 26 other jurisdictions, has shown their commitment to improving their child welfare systems by joining the National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS). NPCS brings a public health and safety science approach to reducing child abuse and neglect.

Michael Cull, one of our Center’s Associate Directors and an Associate Professor for the University of Kentucky College of Public Health, was invited to participate in an interview with Jefferson Public Radio to discuss Oregon’s role in the National Partnership for Child Safety.

2022 TCOM Conference: Call for Proposals

We invite those interested in presenting to submit their proposal to present at the 18th Annual TCOM Conference. The theme of the 2022 TCOM Conference is “Managing Change and All That Jazz”. The Call for Proposals will remain open until February 28, 2022. You may submit your proposal using our Call for Proposal form. 

And the Medallion Scavenger Hunt Winner is…

During the 2021 TCOM Conference, Community Data Roundtable (CDR) and the Praed Foundation hosted a virtual conference-wide scavenger hunt. Attendees sought out horse-themed medallions with TCOM keywords for a chance to win a fabulous prize. Community Data Roundtable Executive Director, Dan “Spielberg” Warner, put together a video highlighting the winner, Dr. Arabellys Hidalgo, of The New York Foundling, receiving her prize.

Want to be a (Heuristic) Hero?

Each month, the TCOM Team will be exploring a heuristic through the TCOM lens, which we will promote on our recently launched YouTube channel, The TCOM Channel. Our eyes will be on heuristics that are intended to help people improve their person-centered helping processes.

TCOM Safe System Team Assists in National Partnership for Child Safety

Michael Cull, PhD, and his team at the Center for Innovation in Population Health, will join in leading the technical assistance efforts for the newly-formed National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS). NPCS was formed by child welfare leaders in an effort to improve child safety and realign child welfare toward a more preventative child and family well-being system.

Ecological Dispruptions & Well-Being Among Children in Foster Care

We are creating brief videos describing the research and highlighting findings of relevance to policy and practice. We will be highlighting these videos on our TCOM YouTube Channel.

What If You Could Find Your Ideal Psychotherapy Treatment Before Seeing a Therapist?

The What IPH (if) Seminar Series, hosted by the Center for Innovation in Population Health, present innovative ideas that can apply to the public health space. Matt Southward, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Department of Psychology at the UK, presents his latest personalization treatment findings and how well these precision medicine models work to predict a patient’s best course of treatment from the beginning.

Let’s Recap: 2021 TCOM Conference

We would like to thank everyone who attended and participated in this year’s 2021 TCOM Conference. This year, we made the choice to transition our Conference from a hybrid to virtual event due to the increase numbers of COVID-19. In this, we were still able to have an engaging and collaborative event for the 17th Annual TCOM Conference. Here is a brief recap of the event.

2021 TCOM Conference: What to Expect

The 17th Annual TCOM Conference will take place October 6-8, 2021. Now that we have switched our format to entirely virtual, here are some items to expect for our virtual event.

The Need for TCOM-365, Not Just 3 Days

TCOM-365 will actively support the work of those who have attended conferences in the past, who will attend this year, and those who may have never have the opportunity to attend the actual event. We will be bringing TCOM worldwide through our transformative collaborations.

Moving Virtually – 2021 TCOM Conference

After careful discussion and consideration, the TCOM Team has decided to move the 17th Annual TCOM Conference, scheduled for October 6 – 8, 2021, to a solely virtual format. This decision was not made without significant deliberation.

TCOM Conference’s COVID-19 Health Policy 

To assure the optimal safety of all attendees, this year’s TCOM Conference in Lexington will require either evidence of full vaccination OR a negative PCR test for COVID-19 within 72 hours (3 days) prior to in-person conference check-in at the hotel. We will follow CDC guidelines regarding masks and social distancing during the conference.

Safety Culture and Child Welfare with Vermont

Just like in aviation and the nuclear industry, child welfare is a safety critical industry and high stakes high consequence decisions are made every day by child welfare workers and caregivers. Dr. Michael Cull, Associate Director for the Center for Innovation in Population Health (IPH Center), was recently interviewed in Welcome to the Field, a […]

Early Bird Gets The Discount

Register by 11:59PM EST Saturday, July 31st, to receive 25% off the 2021 TCOM Conference.

10 Seconds to Make a Difference – National Be Someone Day

The mission of the TCOM community has always been to elevate the shared vision of the people and the communities that serve them. We believe that every day we can play a part in helping improve the lives of the children, families and adults we serve.  That being said, today is “National Be Someone Day”.

Pre-Conference Vignette-A-Thon

We are announcing a vignette-a-thon, an event to allow us to expand our pool of potential vignettes in areas where they are most needed. Submit a vignette that meets the mentioned criteria (per our review), and you’ll receive a discount on next year’s conference registration. Come to the conference this year and you’ll receive prizes for submissions during our social hour.

LIVE NOW: Registration for 2021 TCOM Conference

Registration for the 17th Annual TCOM Conference is now available. This year, experts and professionals throughout the field will gather to focus upon a theme of “Getting A Leg-Up on TCOM,” in Lexington, Kentucky-October 6-8, 2021. Through the TCOM Conference, we build momentum to serve youth & families in equitable and transformative ways. We hope that you will join us.

TCOM Certified Trainer Training

We are hosting a virtual workshop June 16 – 17, 2021 for those that are interested in being a certified Trainer in either the ANSA or CANS. Deadline to register is June 9, 2021.

Italy’s 5th TCOM Conference

Italy’s 5th TCOM Conference will present the implementation of CANS tools in Italy and in the United States for the promotion of collaborative practices oriented to outcome evaluation. In the US, about 80% of children and adolescents in care of mental health services receive an assessment through CANS. In Italy, there are about 1000 trained operators, 80 agencies involved, 7 interinstitutional research projects, and others still in the planning phase. During the training days, reflections will be presented starting from clinical research conducted with the use of the instruments of the CANS family, and the operators will be confronted with the usefulness, strengths and limits and possible future developments of this innovative approach.

Have a Moment?

As TCOM has grown, so have the members of the community we serve. We understand that continued communication with the TCOM Collaborative and understanding who you are is an important part in our goal to continue to connect and collaborate with you. That’s why we have created an audience survey, and would appreciate your participation.

ACRC: 65th Annual Conference

The Association of Children’s Residential Centers is seeking presentations for its 65th Annual Conference, to be held August 3-6, 2021, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The ACRC is seeking abstract submissions from presenters willing to present live: in-person, virtually, or in either format. They also offer a robust poster presentation session both in person and virtually. The deadline to submit a proposal will be Friday, April 30, 2021.

How is Implementation of the CANS Outside of the U.S? – featuring Mother’s Choice in Hong Kong

Recognizing the valuable TCOM work that is being engaged in around the world, we are excited to announce a quarterly blog series that will focus on implementation in different countries. These posts will provide information on implementation considerations, challenges and learning opportunities, and will give a peek into how places outside of the United States are using the TCOM tools.
We begin this series with an implementation of the CANS in its early stages in Hong Kong by Mother’s Choice, a local charity serving children without families and pregnant teenagers. The following is an interview with Dr. Saw Han Quah and Lea Wong, in which they discuss their efforts to implement the CANS.

What if adopting an entrepreneurial mindset can help academics succeed in their professional development?

New Faculty are given an office, a computer and teaching assignments and are expected to develop a successful program of research. In many ways, each faculty position is its own ‘start-up’. Like start-ups, some succeed and some do not. Perhaps we can learn from the field of entrepreneur development how to better support the process of faculty development. We welcome you to join us at our What IPH Seminar Series featuring Warren Nash, the Executive Director of The Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship (VACE) at the University of Kentucky.

Call For Proposals – Extension Announced

For the 17th Annual TCOM Conference, we are announcing a new proposal submission deadline for March 31, 2021 23:59 CST.
If you are interested in presenting at the 17th Annual TCOM Conference, you now have over two weeks to work on and submit your presentation proposal.

Invitation: Presenting at the Annual TCOM Conference

The Annual TCOM Conference gives us the opportunity to bring together leaders and innovators in the fields of behavioral health, child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and more. We would like to hear from all the voices of the TCOM Collaborative to submit a proposal for the 17th Annual TCOM Conference in Lexington, KY from October 6-8, 2021.

Interview with Lizzie Minton – Kentucky’s Clinical Consultant

Ken McGill, this year’s TCOM Conference Program Chair, spoke with Lizzie Minton, Kentucky’s Clinical Consultant and a member of the 2021 TCOM Conference Program Committee, to discuss the the upcoming TCOM conference!

Getting A Leg Up On TCOM

What are the steps needed to begin the process of getting a leg up? So getting a leg up on TCOM focuses on the goal of CANS to ‘name-it’ or – what is going on in the lives of those we serve. How can someone obtain-it if they do not first name-it or what is being identified as needs and/or strengths. The plans of care than are constructed to outline the transformation goals or the ‘gain-it.’ These become the skills, functional strengths being developed as part of care planning process. It will be the child/youth & family team that will ‘sustain-it’ developing/utilizing family & community supports. It is only with a shared vision that a child/youth, adult & their family will remain focused on reaching their own aspirational goals throughout life.

Deadline Approaching – Call for Proposals

*Please note that at the time this was written, our Call for Proposals deadline was March 15, 2021. We have now extended our deadline to March 31, 2021.*
The deadline for the 17th Annual TCOM Conference Call for Proposals is two weeks away on March 15, 2021. We invite you to submit a proposal if you are interested in presenting at this year’s TCOM Conference.

What if learning how Shakespeare wrote Hamlet could help you in writing papers, grants, or even to develop a treatment plan?

In 2019, the TCOM group established the Center for Innovation in Population Health (IPH) at the University of Kentucky. We are proud to announce that through the IPH Center, we will be hosting a free seminar series, and encourage our TCOM Collaborative to attend. Stephen Wrentmore, a lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of […]

Keeping it Fresh: Updating Your Reference Guide

In recent months, we have updated our Standard Comprehensive versions of the CANS, ANSA and FAST (with the Early Childhood and CAT versions not far behind). Keep reading to learn about general and tool-specific updates and how you can access these new versions.

Introducing Our 2021 TCOM Conference Chairperson – Ken McGill

Meet Ken McGill, the Conference Chairman for the 17th Annual TCOM Conference! We are grateful to have Ken be a part of the TCOM Collaborative, and we are excited to work with him on creating a fantastic event for the TCOM 2021 Conference. Let’s meet Ken!

IPH Center’s First Seminar – You’re Invited!

The TCOM group established the Center for Innovation in Population Health at the University of Kentucky back in the Fall of 2019. We are proud to announce that through the IPH Center, we will be hosting a free seminar series, and encourage our TCOM Collaborative to attend.
In our very first seminar series, Stephen Wrentmore, a lecturer with the Department of Theatre and Dance, UK College of Fine Arts, will be discussing dramaturgy, the science of storytelling. Stephen will offer ideas on how dramaturgy can help researchers tell the stories of their publications, grants, or creating a treatment plan. This will give our audience an alternative way that health scientists can tell their stories and their work.

17th Annual TCOM Conference – Call for Proposals!

We invite all members of the international TCOM collaborative to submit proposals to present your work at this year’s TCOM Conference! For this year’s conference, we will be in Lexington, KY, where the TCOM Team is now based. We look forward to your proposals, and look forward to your attendance,

8 Tips to Keep the Holidays Happy

We encourage our TCOM Collaborate to celebrate this year’s festivities in ways that we hope will help keep us all safe and healthy. We understand that this may present some difficult emotional and logistical challenges. Celebrating holidays alone or only with our immediate household members can be a new hurdle that many of us haven’t experienced before. But the holidays aren’t canceled. We can still share our love, show gratitude and plan creative activities to make this holiday a season to remember.

Mine-CANS Winner – TCOM Conference 2020

During the TCOM 2020 Virtual Cloud Gathering Conference, Community Data Roundtable (CDR) hosted a conference-wide virtual scavenger hunt for all of our attendees.
Attached, you will find a video that Community Data Roundtable put together which highlights the winner, Lydia Shaw, receiving her gift basket, and features CDR, members of the TCOM Team, and Dr. John Lyons.

New Website Announcement

Back in September of 2019, the TCOM group established the Center for Innovation in Population Health (IPH) at the University of Kentucky.
Today we are excited to announce the launch of the IPH Center’s new website!

We hope that with our website, we can further improve our engagement with the University of Kentucky, Commonwealth of Kentucky, and beyond. On our site, you will be able to gather an understanding of what the IPH Center hopes to accomplish, the work that we do, and learn more about our team.

We Appreciate You

Two weeks ago was our 16th Annual TCOM Conference; we would like to thank everyone that participated.

Recap from TCOM 2020 Virtual Cloud Gathering Conference

The 16th Annual TCOM Conference, A TCOM Cloud Gathering. Meeting Each Other Where We Are: Collaboration in a COVID-19 World has officially ended. We hope you were able to learn and grow from this year’s sessions; the TCOM Team feels grateful that we had the opportunity to connect and collaborate with each of you.

TCOM 16th Annual Conference: Are You Registered?

TCOM 2020 Conference is DAYS away. The All Access Pass Sale (20% off from our regular registration) is available until Sunday, November 8th, 2020. Starting Monday, November 9th, only the 3-Day Regular Registration option will be available to register for.

Keynote Spotlight: Meet Liz Kromrei

Meet one of your TCOM 2020 Keynote Speakers! Featured in this post: Liz Kromrei – let’s meet Liz!

Be sure to join us virtually to hear Liz discuss “CANS Assessments in the Texas Child Welfare System: A Road Trip” on Friday, November 13th, 2020 from 11:50 – 12:35PM EST during our TCOM 2020 Cloud Gathering Conference.

Speaker Spotlight: Charlane Oliver

Meet one of your TCOM 2020 Speakers! Featured in this post: Charlane Oliver, co-founder of the Equity Alliance. Let’s meet Charlane!

Be sure to join us virtually to hear Charlane for our Master Lecture on Wednesday, November 11th, 2020 from 11AM – 1PM EST, and Roundtable from 3PM – 5PM EST on November 11th during our TCOM 2020 Cloud Gathering Conference.

Keynote Spotlight: Meet Dr. Michael Cull

Meet one of your TCOM 2020 Keynote Speakers! Featured in this post: Dr. Michael Cull

Be sure to join us virtually to hear Dr. Cull discuss “Reconsidering Resilience” on Wednesday, November 11th, 2020 from 11:50 – 12:35PM EST during our TCOM 2020 Cloud Gathering Conference.

Keynote Spotlight: Meet Dr. Khaled El Emam

Meet one of your TCOM 2020 Keynote Speakers! Featured in this post: Dr. Khaled El Emam

Be sure to join us virtually to hear Dr. Khaled El Emam discuss “The Promise, Applications, and Challenges of Generating Synthetic Health Data” on Friday, November 13th, 2020 from 11:00 – 11:45AM EST during our TCOM 2020 Cloud Gathering Conference.

Keynote Spotlight: Meet Dr. Jei Africa

Meet one of your TCOM 2020 Keynote Speakers! Featured in this post: Jei Africa – let’s meet Jei!

Be sure to join us virtually to hear Dr. Jei Africa discuss “Emerging from the Crisis: Radical Hope, Justice and Love” on Thursday, November 12th, 2020 from 11:00 – 11:45AM EST during our TCOM 2020 Cloud Gathering Conference.

Transitions: How does managed care use the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool?

By: Barbara Ann Dunn, ACSW, LCSW, Director, Program Innovation and Outcomes, Magellan Healthcare Transitions Using Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) algorithms for access and transition decision support is particularly helpful when celebrating successes. It’s not always appropriate to use the algorithms to screen people for discharge from programs. Screening divides those who get […]

Appropriate and Effective: How does managed care use the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool?

By: Barbara Ann Dunn, ACSW, LCSW, Director, Program Innovation and Outcomes, Magellan Healthcare Appropriateness and Effectiveness An appropriate service should be effective. These two Key Decisions are inextricably linked and are often the basis of medical necessity. Evidence-based practices assign a defined appropriate population and a set of measures demonstrating effectiveness and provide a good […]

TCOM Annual Conference: Group Rates Available

Meeting Each Other Where We Are: Collaboration in a COVID-19 World Group rates are available for this year’s virtual conference (November 11th-13th, 2020)! Save 30% off the All Access Pass when you register a group of five people or more. Feel free to reach out to us at communications@praedfoundation.org for details. For registration and to […]

TCOM Annual Conference: Early Bird Registration Extended!

We’re extending Early Bird ticket sales to September 13th! Regular registration will begin at 12:00am on Monday, September 14th. Our conference will be virtual this year, and continuing education credits can be awarded. You can find our registration site and draft conference agenda here. We hope you’ll join us! –The TCOM Team

From Access to Engagement: How does managed care use the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths tool?

By Barbara Ann Dunn, ACSW, LCSW, Director, Program Innovation and Outcomes, Magellan Healthcare Engagement In my last post we looked at Key Decision 1 (Access) and how managed care uses the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) to enable access to services. Key Decision 2, Engagement, is about bringing people from access — opening […]

Different Models using the CANS with Family Support and Advocacy

By: Janet Hoeke, Founder and Owner of WillowTree Mosaics Recently a friend asked me to join their Wraparound care coordination team as part of the child and family team in the role of family support. The CANS wasn’t used in Idaho when my child was dealing with his serious emotional disturbance, so this was my […]

TCOM Annual Conference: Early Bird Registration Now Open!

Meeting Each Other Where We Are: Collaboration in a COVID-19 World We hope you’ll join us for our virtual conference on November 11th-13th! Connection is more important now than ever. We look forward to our community coming together. Early bird registration is now open, and continuing education hours are available (if seeking CEs, please add […]

How does managed care use the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) tool?

By: Barbara Ann Dunn, ACSW, LCSW, Director, Program Innovation and Outcomes, Magellan Healthcare The Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) is a multi-purpose tool developed for children’s services to support decision making, including level of care and service planning, to facilitate quality improvement initiatives, and to allow for the monitoring of outcomes of services. […]

Voice to Vote

By: the TCOM Team Let’s all vote and help those who need our help to vote as well. Everyone should have a voice in creating our national shared vision. Over the past decade, a many of us have participated in a number of strategic planning processes that played off 2020 representing perfect vision (e.g. Vision […]

A TCOM Virtual Town Hall with John Lyons

By Kenneth McGill, Senior Training and Consultation Specialist from Rutgers University On June 30th New Jersey Children’s System of Care held a 2-hour Town Hall style webinar with Dr. John Lyons, developer of TCOM, who provided answers to questions from system partners on the CANS Tools (i.e., SNA, CAT, & FANS). In addition, Dr. Lyons shared the work being […]

Post-COVID 19 Planning Strategy-As we SIFT through the impact of this worldwide traumatic event-We must support school-age children/youth towards HOPE.

By: Kenneth McGill, EdS LMFT Kenneth initially wrote this blog in early June. We find his words ring just as true today, as America continues to respond to the pandemic and the racial inequities laid bare and necessitating both a shared vision and transformation. Like many it only took me a few weeks to recognize the immense […]

Wraparound and CANS Strengths: How to Rate CANS Strengths Effectively and Authentically with Youth and Families

By: Stephanie East, MS, MSW/CSWA, En Route, LLC One of the unique aspects of the CANS assessment is the ability to focus on the whole picture: one that highlights both current strengths and needs as a decision support tool within the Wraparound planning process. A strengths perspective highlights the skills and abilities, attributes and features, […]

Curiosity: What Does Culture Have to Do with It?

By: Cynthia Schelmety, Training Manager, CCF, CANS-NY Technical Assistance Institute & Cassandra Cooper, MA, LCPC, Senior Policy Analyst, University of Kentucky “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”-Aristotle Culture comes from the Latin word cultura, which basically means to build on, to cultivate, and to foster. Sometimes the term Culture is solely meant to […]

A Statement from the University of Kentucky College of Public Health

The TCOM team is honored to be working alongside the University of Kentucky’s College of Public Health. Below is a message from Dean Donna K. Arnett regarding our country’s most recent incidents of racial injustice. We wholeheartedly affirm this message and share a commitment to seeking equity and justice for the Black community and all […]

Supervision Strategies for the “New Normal:” Remote Work with an Improvement Mindset

Free Recorded Webinar (Listening Time: 42 Minutes) Last week, TCOM colleagues Mark Lardner and Tiffany Lindsey led a webinar for CANS and ANSA clinical supervisors, coaches and trainers. In the webinar, we present several team-based strategies from our Team First: Field Guide, which is a free download at The Praed Foundation’s homepage. Texas was gracious […]

Unprecedented Transformation

By: Rebekka Schaffer, Workforce Development and Conference Coordinator, Center for Innovation in Population Health I don’t know about you, but every time I turn on my television, or check my email, or try to order something online, I’m reminded that we’re living in “unprecedented and uncertain times”. It’s a little ironic that the phrase itself […]

Beyond Compliance

By: Mark Lardner, LCSW, Center for Innovation in Population Health When a system is looking for an assessment process to help improve their work with individuals, they often explore the TCOM approach. A simplified description of an initial implementation of TCOM tools would include the following activities. First, local versions of the tools are designed with […]

TCOM and the Post-Truth Culture: The Fourth Monkey

By: Dr. John Lyons Much has been said about our current cultural moment… where it appears truth does not matter to a large segment of our population.  All that matters is ‘winning’ and if winning requires you to provide inaccurate or misleading information, then it is just another strategy to ‘win’. This cultural belief system, […]

Transformational Relationships in a Pandemic

By: Cinthya Chin Herrera, PsyD Across the country, most states have joined the the remainder of the world in moving nearly every aspect of our society into digital spheres.  In the Bay Area, many service providers have begun exploring the intricacies of working from home. At times this has meant connecting with kids, teens, families, […]

Collaborative Assessment in the “New Normal”: Completing the CANS and ANSA via phone

Dr. John Lyons and Dr. April Fernando presented a webinar on the use of the CANS and ANSA in non-face-to-face modalities (e.g., telephone). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations have had to adapt their means of communication for the safety of themselves and others. Effective collaboration becomes extremely important when using the phone or […]

Using CANS Items to Define Child Well-Being and Study Child Welfare Outcomes

By: Dr. Amy Zimmerman, Casey Family Programs Casey Family Programs (Casey) believes that every child deserves a safe, supportive, and permanent family. Casey works urgently and relentlessly with our target service population of older youth to achieve permanency so that no child will age out of Casey foster care. We believe building, or rebuilding, family […]

Caring for Each Other…The CANS Can Help

By Ken McGill, Eds, LMFT, Rutgers University The impact of the coronavirus, now labeled a pandemic, has been worldwide. If we take a moment, we will see that there has been a change in daily life; this is true for individuals, couples, families, agencies, institutions or any other entity throughout our planet. I am sure […]

Working from Home – Experiences from the TCOM team

As the COVID-19 crisis changes day by day in the United States and around the world, more people are beginning to work from home. Many resources are providing helpful tips for people new to working from home, so we decided to ask some of our staff who generally work from home to highlight their successes […]

Resilience Reconsidered

by Michael Cull, PhD, Associate Director for Safe Systems, University of Kentucky’s Center for Innovation in Population Health No doubt our resilience as a nation is being tested by current events.  We’re facing significant uncertainty at home and at work. How will we accomplish home visits? How do we ensure child safety? How can we […]

Introducing the TCOM 2020 Conference Chair

The Praed Foundation is delighted to introduce Barbara Dunn as our new Conference Chair for the 16th annual TCOM Conference! Read her letter below! Dear TCOM Collaborative, I am excited about being asked to serve as the Conference Program Chair in 2020! Last year I served on the program committee and thoroughly enjoyed reviewing the […]

Mass Customized Patterns and Priorities for Success

By Kate Cordell, PhD, MPH, Managing Director at Mental Health Data Alliance, LLC What if we could utilize the CANS and ANSA to identify which items, if resolved, were associated with success in our program? What if we could look at that by race/ethnicity, gender and age? If we could, we could get a lot […]

Connecting Through Communication-The Human Experience

By Ken McGill, EdS, LMFT, Rutgers University What is more basic to our understanding than how we develop and use language? Language is used to communicate who we are as individuals. It can be used to describe how we are ‘feeling inside’ to others. It is through this sharing or using words to connect feelings […]

Transformation: Shared Knowledge & Skills Building

By: Ken McGill Senior Training and Consultation Specialist Connecting It All Together… The work within the field of ‘human services’ can often become quite complicated, especially from the perspective of those we serve…the children/youth & families. I have often wondered, “Why do we make things so complicated?” I thought with all of the advances of […]

16th Annual TCOM Conference-Call for Papers!

We are happy to announce the 16th Annual TCOM Conference this year in beautiful and vibrant New Orleans. To highlight our host city, the theme of this year’s conference is “Collaboration and All that Jazz”.  We invite all members of the international TCOM collaborative to submit proposals to present your work. The content of presentations can be varied or broad, but each presentation […]

A Legacy of Relationships

By John Lyons, PhD In 2019, I became an orphan.  Unlike many of the young people with whom we work, I was privileged to have at least one of my parents in my life for 63 years.  But regardless of our age, losing both parents is a profound experience.   My father passed on December 2nd […]

Changing Student Outcomes with Restorative Practices, Part 2

By: Amber Joiner-Hill, MSSW Associate Policy Analyst, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago In Part One of this piece, I outlined some of the impacts that the criminalization of students has on youth outcomes—lower high school graduation rates, higher chances of getting arrested, and increased likelihood of entering the adult criminal justice system. Here I’d like to offer restorative […]

Changing Student Outcomes with Restorative Practices, Part 1

By: Amber Joiner-Hill, MSSW Associate Policy Analyst, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago I started developing a vocabulary around the criminalization of students—particularly those in elementary and middle school—about four years ago when I participated in my city’s “Citizen’s Academy”. The program exposed residents to various government services, functions, and challenges. The intent was […]

Sandtrays, Fables, and Expressive Arts: Story-telling Adventures with the CANS

By: Ritchie Rubio, PhD We were fortunate enough to have Dr. Rubio present at the 15th Annual TCOM Conference earlier this month. In his post below he shares more on using the CANS and story-telling to promote client wellness. Listening to, reading, or sharing a good story is something most if not all of us […]

What Will it Take to Reverse the Youth E-Cigarette Epidemic?

By: Melinda J. Ickes, PhD Associate Professor, Health Promotion; Faculty Associate, Center for Innovation and Population Health, University of Kentucky When we send young people to school, we think about what they are learning, how they are being prepared for a future career path, if they are building friendships, and hope they engage in positive […]

TCOM Conference Recap: Stories Worth Telling

Check out what happened at the 15th Annual TCOM Conference and get access to the presentations!

A Message from Dr. John Lyons

Dr. Lyons announces a big and exciting change for the TCOM Team!

TCOM Conference: Presentation Spotlight

With the 15th Annual TCOM Conference around the corner, we wanted to give you a sneak peek look at some of this year’s presentations! Casey Family Programs took time to answer some questions about their upcoming presentation, Engaging Staff in Improving and Advancing the CANS in Practice: Integrating TCOM Principles into Casey’s Continuous Quality Improvement. […]

TCOM Conference: Presentation Sneak Peek!

With the 15th Annual TCOM Conference around the corner, we wanted to give you a sneak peek look at some of this year’s presentations! Conference presenters Celeste Seibel and Danielle Phillips took some time to answer some questions about their upcoming presentation, Utilizing CANS Within the Wraparound Process. Q: What should individuals look forward to […]

15th Annual TCOM Conference Roundtables

The 15th Annual TCOM Conference is around the corner, and we have some exciting news! For the first time ever, our Pre-Conference Day will feature a series of round tables and master lectures covering a wide range of topics. Attendees will be given the chance to have more in-depth discussions with presenters and each other […]

TCOM Conference: Data Sharing Workshop

The 15th Annual TCOM Conference is around the corner, and we have some exciting news! For the first time ever, our Pre-Conference Day will feature a series of round tables and master lectures covering a wide range of topics. Attendees will be given the chance to have more in-depth discussions with presenters and each other […]

One Person, One Story, One CANS/ANSA

By: Dr. John Lyons Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago A few years ago, I was in Hawai’i over Memorial Day. At the recommendation of a local colleague we attended the candle floating ceremony on Oahu. In the ceremony, people create candles commemorating lost loved ones and float them out to sea together. The […]

Can We Evaluate Whole Person Suffering?

By: Josh Morgan, PsyD SAS Analytics In our field of work, there are many calls to reduce suffering. Seems reasonable, right? It’s even in California’s Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), where public systems are called to “reduce subjective suffering.” And as we broadly focus more on outcomes in health, measuring suffering (and hopefully its reduction) […]

Transformative Culture: The Call for Psychological Safety

By: Tiffany Lindsey, EdD, LPC-MHSP Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago Have you ever made a mistake at work—maybe even one that could have affected you, your teammate, or a client’s safety? If you’re a human who helps other humans for a living, the answer is a prevailing yes. None of us do the […]

Registration is Open! #TCOM2019

We are so excited to announce registration for our 15th Annual TCOM Conference in Palm Springs is now open! Culture and Community: Sharing Stories from the Collaborative Every year the TCOM Conference provides an opportunity to collaborate with and learn from leaders and innovators in behavioral health, child welfare, education, juvenile justice, and more. While […]

Defining Serious Mental Illness

By: Beth Anne Nichols, NH Mental Health Block Grant Plan Administrator New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services In the rugged landscape that is New Hampshire’s mental health system, serious mental illness (SMI) is a powerful thing. On an individual level, an adult experiencing SMI becomes eligible for community-based psychiatric rehabilitation. Psychiatric rehabilitation consists […]

TCOM and Systems Safety: My Journey

By: Tiffany Lindsey, Policy Analyst Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago My journey towards Safety Culture began in a group home. I was 24-years-old and had just started a new job as program manager—my first supervisory role. I was the only clinician on-site. All but one of my staff were older than I was, […]

TA Network Webinar: Effectively Integrating the CANS into the Wraparound Process

Date/Time: April 30, 2019, 11am – 12:30pm PT / 2pm – 3:30pm ET The Wraparound process is the most common care coordination model for youth with complex needs and their families. Meanwhile, the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) is now the most widely used assessment tool in public child-serving systems. While some states, […]

The Joy of Saying Goodbye

This is a farewell blog post about our teammate and friend who is leaving Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago for an exciting new opportunity. Katherine “Katie” Sun joined the TCOM Team in the summer of 2016. Since then, she launched communications platforms, including this blog, to expand the work and voices of the […]

A community gathers to learn how to prevent the trauma of high homicide rates

By: Marrianne McMullen, Director of Communication and Dissemination Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago Audrey Wright, a senior at North Lawndale College Prep High School in Chicago, described the unthinkable to an auditorium packed with 1,500 people. She lost her mother and brother to gun violence within three days. The following year, she lost […]

15th annual TCOM Conference

Culture and Community: Sharing Stories from the Collaborative TCOM is an approach based on storytelling. People seeking help share their experiences (i.e., tell their stories). Sometimes, parts of their stories are retold by multiple professionals based on their skills and focus. In order to effectively help, these stories must be combined into a single story, and […]

Viva La CANS

By: Shelly Paule, Policy Analyst County of San Diego Child Welfare Services (CWS) Hi, my name is Shelly Paule. As a policy analyst with the County of San Diego Child Welfare Services (CWS), I was the lead for managing the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) implementation. My role included drafting the policy, training […]

Home Visiting and the FFPSA: Expanding Child Protection Opportunities

By: Deborah Daro, Senior Research Fellow Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago The Family First Prevention and Services Act (FFPSA) (Family First) represents an opportunity to bridge the historic gap between interventions to resolve unhealthy parenting practices and behaviors and programs designed to prevent these behaviors from developing. Creating a shared understanding that treatment […]

Avoid this Fundamental Mistake in TCOM Tool Scoring: confusing anchor definitions, for concrete details

By Dan Warner, Executive Director-Community Data Roundtable I have seen many hard-working, diligent people fail TCOM certification because they over-focus on anchor definitions, and do not properly understand the item they are rating.  They think that by focusing on the anchor definitions they are being “detail oriented,” but instead they are “missing the forest for […]

Strategic Sustainability Learning Collaborative

The following blog post is written by our friends at Open Minds. Open Minds is a Behavioral Health Market Research and Management Consulting firm based out of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They specialize in the health and human service sector to serve individuals with the mission of providing providers and payer organizations the resources and knowledge to […]

How to do a Quality Assessment, TCOM Style

Presented and written by Lynda Killoran (Centerstone), Lynn Steiner (Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago), and Deborah Thomas (Centerstone) In our work as trainer, supervisor or clinician, we often hear a variation on THIS theme from assessors who were recently trained on a version of the CANS: “It’s SOOOO long and there are too […]

Family Matters

Family Matters: Why finding and engaging extended family and fictive kin is critical to positive outcomes for children in foster care

Readiness Inventory for Successful Employment

RISEmploy Each TCOM tool is a combination of items inside of a domain meant to reflect the emerging needs and strengths of its population of use. It is adaptable. One of these adaptations is the “Readiness Inventory for Successful Employment (RISEmploy), also known as the Strengths at Work (SAW), can be implemented as its own […]

Continuous Quality Improvement-Moving beyond the data dashboard

“Getting beyond the data dashboard means continuously using rigorous data and evidence to answer the questions that will lead to the solutions that will positively impact the children, youth, and families served by our organizations.” -Yolanda Rogers, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

Reflections from the conference-TCOM2018

2018 was a big year for the TCOM Collaborative. Based on your conference feedback from years before, we work tirelessly to make sure YOU get the most out of the event. From planning, to producing, to posting materials after the conference ends, we depend on your voice.

Wrapping up the 14th Annual TCOM Conference-Evidence and Transformation: Taking Person-Centered Care to Scale

Here’s What Happened About 300 people gathered at the Drake Hotel in Chicago last week to attend the 14th annual Transformational Collaborative Outcomes Management conference. Person-centered care was the theme of this our conference this year, and we were excited to collaborate with domestic and international participants. Workshops focused on how to make best use […]

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight-David Channer

Meet one of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: David Channer

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight-Betty Walton, Gina Doyle & Wendy Harrold

Meet some of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Betty Walton, Gina Doyle, and Wendy Harrold

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight-Antonella Di Troia

Meet some of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Antonella Di Troia

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight-Rachel Andrew

Meet one of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Rachel Andrew

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight-Nate Lubold

Meet one of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Nate Lubold

Mapping it out with CANS-Y-LAND

Of the TCOM suite of tools, the most widely used tool is the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths Assessment (CANS). The CANS is a communimetric measurement tool that utilizes direct feedback from the youth, family & other team members to identify the actionable needs & strengths of the youth & family in developing and informing the treatment […]

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight-Kyla Clark & Tanya Albornoz

Meet some of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Kyla Clark & Tanya Albornoz

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight- Vida K. Khavar

Meet one of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Vida Khavar Vida Khavar is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has 25 years’ experience in child welfare. Vida began her career as a clinician in various agencies throughout Los Angeles. She developed expertise in all areas of child welfare while striving to bring Permanency to […]

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight- Emily Shapiro & Melissa Villegas

Meet some of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Emily B. Shapiro & Melissa Villegas Emily B. Shapiro is a Quality Improvement Associate at Jewish Child and Family Services (JCFS) located in Chicago, IL. She has experience in qualitative research, project management, and evaluation consulting for nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. She provides direct quality improvement […]

My Introduction to TCOM

Rebekka Schaffer, Project Assistant at Chapin Hall I joined the TCOM Team here at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago at the start of July 2018. When I was first introduced to the team, I was worried I wouldn’t even remember what TCOM stood for, let alone understand what they really do. My fears […]

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight- Jen Cardenas

Meet one of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Jen Cardenas Jen Cardenas is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the founder of the Cardenas Consulting Group. She uses her expertise in clinical and operational management to be a critical thought partner, designer, and coach to leaders of behavioral health and child welfare organizations. She brings […]

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight- Jen Griffis & Marrianne McMullen

Meet some of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Jen Griffis and Marrianne McMullen Jennifer Griffis is a Parent Consultant with the YES Project, which aims to empower the mental wellness of children, youth, and their families. She engages with the system transformation in Idaho by serving on workgroups and supporting the development of statewide […]

The Development of CHISALS

Thanks to recent technological growth, children are receiving cochlear implants earlier than ever before. This advance in technology offers a great benefit to support earlier development of language skills.   While these advancements are exciting, they, of course, create some new challenges for the young patients, their auditory-verbal therapists, and their families. Because of their young […]

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight-Dan Dubovsky

Meet one of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Dan Dubovsky

TCOM 2018 Speaker Spotlight-Mercedes Busby and Angela Pollard

Meet some of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Mercedes Busby and Angela Pollard

Supporting Caregiver Connections

By: Angela Pollard Project Assistant, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago Trauma and its effects on healthy development has become a bigger part of conversations in helping systems such as child welfare and behavioral health. Too many children experience a variety of potentially traumatic/adverse experiences (ACES), as a result of institutions and systems that […]

Registration is Open! #TCOM2018

Registration is Open! Each year we look forward to hosting the Annual TCOM Conference because it gives us the opportunity to bring together leaders and innovators in the fields of behavioral health, child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and more. This year’s conference theme is Evidence and Transformation: Taking Person-Centered Care to Scale. Person centered care […]

Partner Spotlight: The Institute for Innovation & Implementation

About the Institute: The Institute for Innovation and Implementation (The Institute) serves as a training, technical assistance, evaluation, policy, systems design, and finance center for the Maryland Children’s Cabinet and its member agencies, along with multiple other states, localities, and private organizations. The Institute supports state and local governments and organizations to implement effective systems […]

A Substantial Number of Youth Experiencing Homelessness are Pregnant or Parenting

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago is a research and policy center focused on a mission of improving the well-being of children and youth, families, and their communities. They combine rigorous research methods to generate evidence, while providing implementation support to apply that evidence in the field. In 2015, Chapin Hall launched the Voices of Youth […]

LGBTQ Young Adults Experience Homelessness at More than Twice the Rate of Peers

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago is a research and policy center focused on a mission of improving the well-being of children and youth, families, and their communities. They combine rigorous research methods to generate evidence, while providing implementation support to apply that evidence in the field. In 2015, Chapin Hall launched the Voices of Youth […]

TCOM Tools (CANS/ANSA) Certified Trainer

The Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) is a tool that is collaboratively completed to measure a child and family’s strengths and needs. Along with the other TCOM Tools (ANSA, FAST, SSIT, and more), they are evidence-based assessments to support decision-making, including level of care and intervention planning, facilitate quality improvement initiatives, and allows […]

Validating a Behavioral Health Instrument for Adults: Exploratory Factor Analysis-A Brief Summary

Over the last 10 years, behavioral health systems and organizations have increasingly adopted the Adult Needs and Strengths Assessment (ANSA) to support planning, to monitor progress, and for quality improvement initiatives. However, research related to the ANSA remained scarce. This gap was recently been addressed through a publication by Betty Walton, PhD, and Hea-Won Kim, […]