By Kim Johnson, November 06 2009
What is NIATX?
NIATx helps behavioral health providers improve access to and retention in treatment for all of their clients. It's a process improvement collaborative based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (The acronym stands for The Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment. However, since NIATx has moved into mental health other areas of behavioral health, we now go by the acronym only.)
NIATx began in 2003 as a grant project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. The 39 provider sites involved in the grant applied the NIATx model of process improvement, making dramatic improvements in access to and retention in treatment. Today, we work with more than 1500 providers in all states.
Free Technical Assistance for Treatment Providers
To make our model of process improvement available to more providers, NIATx offers the Adopting Changes to Improve Outcomes Now (ACTION) Campaign II. There is no cost to participate. It’s an easy way to get connected with NIATx and learn the basics of process improvement. The ACTION Campaign II offers peer networking, web-based presentations by experts from the field, and easy-to-implement practices that improve services, reduce costs—and in some cases, increase revenue.
The ACTION Campaign II - How It Works
ACTION Campaign II offers two monthly webinars. The first webinar each month will focus on the beginning user and cover core concepts of the NIATx process improvement model. The second webinar is targeted toward more experienced users, who want to expand and sustain process improvement within their organization.
All webinars/conference calls are scheduled for 12:00pm Eastern/11:00am Central/10:00am Mountain/9:00am Pacific.
November 2009 Topic: Workforce Engagement
November 10, 2009 (Beginner Call)
Topic: Getting Staff Buy-In for Change
Presenters: Elizabeth Strauss & Betta Owens, NIATx Coaches, and Bobbi Douglas, STEPS at Liberty Center, Wooster, Ohio
November 19, 2009 (Advanced Call)
Topic: Getting Staff Buy-In for Sustaining Improvements in Difficult Times
Presenters: David Prescott & Rick Redmond, Acadia Hospital, Bangor, Maine
How Can I Participate?
Visit www.niatx.net to for complete information on how to join the ACTION Campaign II webinars.
Other Resources
NIATx provides many other resources for improving your adolescent treatment system. Check out this post for a handy overview of some of these tools.
Kim Johnson is the deputy director for operations of NIATx, a research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that focuses on systems improvement in behavioral health. She is also director of the ACTION (Adopting Changes to Improve Outcomes Now) Campaign, a national campaign to improve access to and retention in treatment. Prior to her move to Wisconsin, Kim served for seven years as the director of the Office of Substance Abuse in Maine. During her tenure as Maine's SSA she focused on improving availability to treatment through cross-system efforts, including developing a model treatment program for criminal justice clients, improved referral systems for child welfare clients and increased access to medication-assisted treatment through work with Medicaid, primary care, and the public health system. Kim has also been an executive director of a treatment agency, managed intervention and prevention programs and been a child and family therapist. She has a master's degree in counselor education and an MBA.
Updated: February 08 2018