Adoption Competency Training Program

A social worker and child smiling

Salem State is proud to partner with the National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI) to offer a free, self-paced online training course to students, alumni, and the larger adoption community.

This training is designed to develop mental health competency for child welfare workers, mental health practitioners and school-based clinicians who work in the adoption community.

The NTI aligned trainings provide the skills, strategies, and tools professionals need to:

  • Support children to heal from trauma and loss.
  • Provide parents with skills to parent more effectively.
  • Collaborate effectively with child welfare and mental health professionals.
  • Improve outcomes for permanency, child well-being, and family well-being and stability.

NTI Mental Health Training Introduction

NTI Mental Health Training Institute Logo

An introduction to NTI Mental Health Training

Learn more about the NTI Training for Mental Health Professionals in this video.

Overview of Training Programs

Child Welfare Training

  • 20 hours
  • 8 modules
  • 17.5 continuing education units (CEUs)
  • Casework focused
  • For child welfare professionals across the continuum in public and private settings
  • Access the child welfare training here.

Child Welfare Supervisor Training

Mental Health Training

  • 30 hours
  • 10 modules
  • 26.5 continuing education units (CEUs)
  • Clinically focused on assessment and treatment
  • For mental health professionals in public or private settings providing clinical services to children, youth and families experiences foster care, adoption or guardianship
  • Access the mental health training here.

School-Based Mental Health Training

  • 17.5 hours
  • 8 modules
  • 17.5 continuing education units (CEUs)
  • Focused on more deeply understanding underlying causes of students' behavior
  • For school-based mental health professionals who want to more deeply understand and address the mental health needs of students experiencing adoption, foster care, kinship or guardianship situations
  • In addition, this training is relevant for students experiencing other types of trauma, such as refugee, immigrant and homeless situations and/or divorced families.
  • Access the school-based mental health training here.

What the Experts are Saying

“NTI offers an easy-to-use and comprehensive overview of the unique issues of children in adoption and foster care placement. Many adoptive families share that therapists lacking adoption competence training can, at times, do more harm than good. I have found there is very little substantive training like NTI available today.” 

-Dr. David Brodzinsky

Connect with the School of Social Work

Before accessing the NTI training, please leave your contact information so that we can inform you about adoption competency events, speakers, conferences, book clubs and learning communities. 

For More Information

Visit our training institute FAQs.

Please contact:

Shelley Steenrod, PhD, LICSW 
Professor of Social Work 
School of Social Work 
Salem State University 
352 Lafayette St. Salem, MA 01810 
978.542.7008 
ssteenrod@salemstate.edu 

LaShawnda Kilgore, PhD 
Training and Implementation Specialist 
Center for Adoption Support and Education 
3919 National Drive, Suite 200 
Burtonsville, MD 20866 
Direct: 301.476.4316 x 440 
www.adoptionsupport.org

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