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.
Judith Howard, LCSW
Judith Howard, LCSW, 2022 TCOM Conference Program Chair
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.
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.
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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!
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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-Betty Walton, Gina Doyle & Wendy Harrold
Meet some of your #TCOM2018 Presenters! Featured in this post: Betty Walton, Gina Doyle, and Wendy Harrold
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- 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Value of Vignettes
Mention a case vignette to anyone who has gone through the certification process for the CANS, ANSA, CAT/CSPI or FAST and you will likely hear groans, and see eye rolls. Very few people are big fans of testing and vignettes are never as clear or easy as a trainee wishes. So, if test vignettes bring […]
Building Bridges and Collaborative Leadership
Building Bridges and Collaborative Leadership. Post 3 by @mcgill_ken
Using the TCOM Tools in Practice
Using TCOM in your own practice. Post 2 by @mcgill_ken
Aligning TCOM and Systems Theory
by: Ken McGill, LMFT In many ways the CANS, the FAST (the family version of the Communimetrics approach to measurement) and the ANSA align with the foundational definition of a system as outlined by Ludwig von Bertalanffy almost 40 years ago. A system must consist of four distinct components: Objects: the parts, elements or variables […]
WISe Symposium
In late July Nate and Danijela headed to Yakima, Washington for the Wrap with Intensive Services (WISe) Symposium. The WISe Symposium: Networking to Build Strenghts was hosted by the State of Washington Department of Social and Health Services. It was the state’s first coordinated event that brought together WISe stakeholders from across the state. Over […]
Adaptation of the CANS and ANSA in Russia
by: Svetlana G Klimanova, M.S. Contact Svetlana, svetlanagk@mail.ru *5/8/2017 Update* Following a great question from one of our followers, Svetlana provided the following articles as additional resources on adapting the CANS and ANSA for Russian implementation. The World’s Youth The Russian Education System Described and Compared with the Dutch System Alternative Education: Comparative Study of […]
Healthy Relationships
Happy Valentine’s Day! What does Valentine’s Day mean to you? Is it a celebration of love, a hallmark holiday, or both? As a child, this holiday can take the form of a classroom activity where you put Valentine’s Day grams with chocolates and hand them out to each child in the class. As we get […]
The Incredible Years
Thanks to Stephanie Romney, in collaboration with Carolyn Webster-Stratton and John Lyons, we have a great guide to the integration of the Incredible Years and the CANS 0-5. What is The Incredible Years (IY)? The Incredible Years is a training program that occurs as a series of complementary evidence-based programs that promote child social, emotional, and academic competence and […]
CANS Core
***11/18/2016 UPDATE*** Currently at Closing Plenary in Princeton, NJ for the 2016 TCOM Conference. Below you will see our updated CANS Core Items available. If you have any additional questions on how to implement the CORE items to your own agency/jurisdiction/state, contact April Fernando at afernando@chapinhall.org cans-6-17-core-50-2016 Every agency, jurisdiction, and, most importantly, child, is […]