Minnesota benefits from broad array of programs and resources
Customer Profile
The Minnesota Department of Human Services (MNDHS) provides services for over a million Minnesota residents across 87 counties and 11 tribes. The Children’s Mental Health Division works to ensure effective, accessible mental health services and support for children and their families.
Customer challenge:
- Needed to train and strengthen the capabilities of a large number of clinicians across the state
- Wanted to leverage research and evidence so that services were based on what is known to work
- Struggled with freeing up clinicians’ time to attend training sessions in underfunded, fee-for-service environment
- Sought to increase evidence-informed care while remaining flexible to meet the unique needs of each system, agency, provider, and family served
Highlights of results:
- Increased use of evidence-informed practices, tools, and resources
- Consultations and ongoing support from PracticeWise helped clinicians maintain their skills, keep current with updates, and effectively deliver content
- Managing and Adapting Practice (MAP) Training Professionals at Washburn Center for Children effectively trained over 100 therapists across the state
- Over 300 clinicians trained by PracticeWise since 2007
“MAP is an excellent model that teaches clinicians how to decide what to treat, what the evidence-based treatment practices are, how to implement them, how to monitor progress, and how to structure a session. The additional support from PracticeWise ensures clinicians stay current and maintain the highest degree of fidelity possible. I am confident our partnership with PracticeWise puts us in a much better position to provide more effective treatment for children throughout the state.”
– Patricia Nygaard, PhD, Quality and Performance Manager,
Minnesota Department of Human Services
A Long Noteworthy History
The relationship between Minnesota and PracticeWise kicked off in 2004. MNDHS’s initial interest in PracticeWise stemmed from a desire to know what the research showed and to use that research as the basis for treatment protocols across the state. The Director at the time was familiar with the work of PracticeWise founders Bruce Chorpita and Eric Daleiden in Hawaii, where service reform was initiated by leaders in the Department of Health’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division pursuing the goal of providing effective services to all youth and families served by the system.
The strategies served as forerunners of the resources included in MAP today and included dissemination of knowledge resources that inform providers about the array of treatment options with supporting evidence for specific target problems or diagnoses, performance measurement, and use of feedback tools.
PWEBS Database
The MNDHS Director and colleagues recognized the value of the searchable database that synthesized the results of randomized controlled trials in children’s mental health to support treatment design, planning, review, and adaptation. In 2005, MNDHS became the first customer to gain access to the database. The database has since evolved into the PracticeWise Evidence-Based Services (PWEBS) database and is now available to all customers.
PWEBS not only provides therapists easy access to clinical information to help in treatment delivery but is also used by MNDHS staff to improve their understanding of the research when evaluating certain treatments. For example, when staff has questions such as “Does the evidence support providing dialectical behavior therapy to adolescents with eating disorders?” or “Is play therapy shown to be an effective treatment for children with anxiety disorders?”, a PWEBS search helps explain the research and how it can be applied.
Clinical Dashboards
The Clinical Dashboards are another resource from PracticeWise that has been valuable across the state.
The Dashboards provide visual tools for tracking activity and measuring progress. They not only track whether the child is getting better but also show activity during treatment. The workspace for team planning and collaboration is helpful for therapists as well as children and families.
Practitioner Guides
Clinical trainees across Minnesota have found the Practitioner Guides (Practice Guides and Process Guides) to be invaluable resources to augment their academic training. The guides help the trainees learn and practice new skills while reducing the support required from supervisors. The trainees use them when setting up treatment plans or structuring individual sessions, and the printed step-by-step guides for implementing each practice element can even be taken into sessions for easy reference.
Training and Professional Development
Clinicians in Minnesota have taken advantage of the broad array of training options from PracticeWise.
Since 2007, approximately 300 clinicians have been trained directly by PracticeWise through the course of more than 20 training sessions. In addition, MNDHS saw how the MAP Professional Development Program could help address their training challenges and allow them to develop their own local expertise. The “train-the-trainer” program, in which training and supervision for therapists is provided by Training Professionals – individuals who have developed their expertise through a combination of information resources, supervision and consultation, completion of established curricula, and performance reviews and have demonstrated a high level of proficiency in the delivery of direct services using the MAP system – was particularly valuable.
Lastly, the leadership at MNDHS felt it was important to provide recognition for people who had completed MAP training. They advocated for recognition for these individuals and supported them in obtaining their MAP credentialing.
Quick PracticeWise Facts
- 24,000+ PracticeWise users worldwide
- 5,100+ MAP Therapists trained/credentialed
- 230+ MAP Agency Supervisors trained/credentialed
- 130+ MAP Instructors trained/credentialed
- 1,000+ articles/papers coded in PWEBS database
- 300+ registered faculty accounts nationwide
- Nearly 300 client organizations/agency partners
“The experience of becoming a MAP Training Professional and being able to share that knowledge with other clinicians in the state has been very rewarding. Not only is MAP an effective model that’s helpful in my treatments, but the training process and additional consultations from PracticeWise have made me a better clinician. It’s exciting to talk about MAP and to know I’m helping other clinicians as well as the children we treat.”
– Melissa Sovak, PsyD, LP, Outpatient Psychologist,
MAP Training Professional, Washburn Center for Children
Spotlight: Washburn Center for Children
Washburn Center for Children (WCC) is one of Minnesota’s largest children’s mental health agencies, providing a range of school, home, and clinic-based mental health services for over 3,500 children and their families, internships for 75-80 students, and training for over 1,000 parents and professionals each year.
WCC was selected as the designated MAP training facility for the state. WCC’s MAP training team began training therapists during the summer of 2015. Since then, WCC has enabled over 100 therapists across the state to receive MAP training, with nearly half of those achieving their MAP credentialing.
WCC currently has three MAP Training Professionals and has been independently conducting MAP training since 2018. The use of Training Professionals provides flexibility and can expedite the rate at which therapists are able to receive MAP training.
To help ensure providers apply MAP most effectively, MNDHS is funding additional support from PracticeWise to observe, monitor, and provide feedback to the WCC MAP Training Professionals. This additional support not only helps the Training Professionals maintain fidelity of content delivery and stay true to the model but also helps them feel more grounded and confident in their roles as trainers. Maintaining a cadre of Training Professionals is important for the ongoing success of the program, and
MNDHS expects this additional support to increase the likelihood of those trainers continuing in their roles.
Innovation and Sustainment
Minnesota has been a testing ground for new innovations in training and then sustaining those training programs once they have been implemented. When an issue has been identified, MNDHS has been open to trying new approaches and PracticeWise has similarly been flexible and creative in coming up with solutions. Examples of initiatives taken to help sustainment include a learning collaborative and booster training sessions.
What’s next for Minnesota?
MNDHS continues to take advantage of PWEBS to this day and is funding ongoing annual subscriptions for all MAP trainees to ensure they have continued access to the research base.
MNDHS is actively pursuing enhanced payment rates for clinicians using MAP. The state is also increasing its use of MAP training for school-based services, thus furthering the reach of MAP across the state.
Conclusion
- PWEBS, Practitioner Guides, and Clinical Dashboards are being utilized across the state in multiple settings
- MAP training conducted by WCC Training Professionals in addition to PracticeWise-led trainings have resulted in increasing numbers of MAP Therapists and MAP Agency Supervisors applying and teaching MAP in multiple agencies across the state
- Monitoring, observations, and other ongoing feedback and support from PracticeWise has helped clinicians maintain fidelity of content delivery and made WCC’s MAP Training Professionals feel more established and better supported in their roles
“PracticeWise shines when it comes to communication and collaboration. The proactive, positive, and open communication between our organizations has fostered an effective and productive working relationship. We have found their team of passionate training professionals to be outstanding, and they have continued to refine the MAP learning experience. The flexibility and versatility of the MAP program make it relevant and applicable in a wide range of settings with a wide range of children and families. I also really appreciate that the team at PracticeWise truly cares about improving mental health services for children.”
– Tom Steinmetz, CEO, Washburn Center for Children
