The UConn Health Adoption Assistance Program (AAP), in Partnership with the Center for Support and Education (C.A.S.E.), with technical assistance provided by UConn School of Social Work, is pleased to offer Training for Adoption Competency (TAC). AAP is one of eighteen sites across the United States certified by C.A.S.E. to offer this training.
Research shows that children with traumatic experiences of abuse, neglect and abandonment and challenging behavioral and emotional responses are at greater risk of presenting with adjustment problems within their adoptive families. These children’s emotional issues are often complex, and adoptive parents often identify these issues as the primary contributors to family stressors post-adoption.
Access to adoption-competent mental health services is a critical factor in the outcomes for these children and their adoptive families and the success of their adoptions.
Many birth parents also need and are often challenged to find quality adoption competent mental health services to process grief and loss.
C.A.S.E. created the TAC to build and strengthen adoption competency in mental health communities across the United States. The TAC is designed to increase families’ and individuals’ access to adoption competent mental health professionals and to improve the well-being of adopted children and youth and their families.
Special Features
- It is exclusively designed for mental health professionals.
- It has an in-depth clinical focus and is specifically designed to build and strengthen clinical skills
- It is competency-based, using a definition of an “adoption competent mental health professional” and clinical adoption competencies
- It is manualized to ensure high quality replication
- It is rigorously evaluated through pilot testing and replication evaluation.
The Curriculum
The TAC training includes a 72-hour curriculum with one in-home and eleven classroom-based sessions. Six case consultation sessions are embedded in six of the eleven classroom sessions to support transfer of learning to practice. Connecticut will be offering the modules remotely for the 2020-2021 course.
TAC Learning Goals and Objectives
The Case Consultation
The TAC case consultation component is designed to promote further integration of adoption competent knowledge, skills and values that were imparted throughout the training. Case consultation strengthens students’ ability to incorporate adoption competencies in their clinical practice with adopted persons, adoptive families, and birth parents and extended family members. C.A.S.E. senior clinicians or C.A.S.E. clinical consultants provide the case consultation component through electronic means. Each student is expected to present two cases.
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Assessment
The Center for Adoption Support and Education, in collaboration with a National Advisory Board and Subject-matter Expert Committee, defined the knowledge, skills, and competencies that serve as the foundation for the TAC program, which currently consists of 12 domains of knowledge covered in 12 modules of educational content. The educational content of the program is aligned to the intended learning outcomes for these 12 domains, as is the final assessment.
Once participants have completed all 12 modules, including the case consultations which are part of the classroom learning experience, they may take the final, 123-item assessment. Program participants are required to complete all 12 modules and pass the final assessment with a score of 70% or higher to be awarded the TAC Certificate.
Additional details about the program and assessment can be found in the Participant Program Manual.
TAC Certificates
For TAC cohorts starting in 2020:
The TAC Certificate Program only grants a Certificate to those who complete all elements of the program and pass the assessment. Certificate holders are allowed to state or advertise that they hold or have earned the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.) Training for Adoption Competency (TAC) Certificate. A complete list of those who have earned the Certificate can be found in the Directory of Adoption Competent Professionals.
For dates and further information, open the “TAC Application” found below.
Apply Today!