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Technical Assistance

The National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare (NCSACW) has operated since 2002. Joint funding comes from the Children’s Bureau (CB), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). NCSACW is a national resource center providing information and expertise, as well as training and technical assistance (TA) to child welfare, dependency court, and substance use treatment professionals.

NCSACW offers on-site and virtual TA, develops and disseminates TA tools, creates educational materials and training curricula, maintains an extensive web presence, and provides a range of TA activities for agencies representing health and social service providers—including substance use and mental health disorder treatment providers, child welfare agencies, family courts, public health, healthcare, maternal and child health, and early childhood services.

NCSACW strives to support systems change, improve practice, and reduce stigma related to families affected by substance use disorders (SUDs) through enhanced agency collaboration—based on a shared understanding of the needs and challenges of families and the systems that serve them. The goal is to improve safety, permanency, well-being, and recovery outcomes for children, parents, and families. NCSACW also researches, compiles, and shares examples of successful programs with other jurisdictions to expand best practices in communities nationwide. Consultation and TA are designed to provide information, resources, best practices, guidance, and effective strategies.

What is Technical Assistance?

The NCSACW uses a variety of methods to ensure availability and easy access to resource information, training materials, cross-systems tools and protocols, and in- person and virtual technical support. All NCSACW resources are free and focus on strategies for working with families affected by substance use and involved in the child welfare and family courts systems.

Resources and Connection

Tailored Consultation

Training and Ongoing Consultation

Specialized Technical Assistance

Specialized Technical Assistance

Family-Centered Systems Innovation Team

In-Depth Technical Assistance

The Family-Centered Systems Innovation Team (FCSIT) program assists states, Tribes, and community partner agencies in implementing the 2016 amendments to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) in the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), Public Law 114-198.

The Family-Centered Systems Innovation Team focuses on improving the safety, health, permanency, well-being, and recovery outcomes of families affected by substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders. This specialized team helps states develop state policies and practice protocols in four critical areas identified in CARA:

  1. infants and their families identified as being affected by prenatal substance exposure,
  2. the development of Plans of Safe Care (POSC),
  3. family-centered practice, and
  4. pregnant and post-partum women’s substance use and mental health treatment programs.

The FCSIT team improves cross-agency collaboration among substance use and mental health disorder treatment centers, child welfare and court systems, and their partners. The improved collaboration reduces duplication of effort, increases effective communication, saves resources, and improves the number of infants who can safely remain with their parents while reducing the number of infants placed in protective custody. The program empowers pregnant women to seek treatment and effectively care for their infants and children.

The In-Depth Technical Assistance model provides communities with tailored, phased support for sustainable policy and practice changes through targeted training, technical assistance, and coaching. The customized assistance has resulted in sites increasing their capacity to improve the safety, health, permanency, well-being, and recovery outcomes for families affected by substance use and mental health disorders.

Regional Partnership Grant Program

The Regional Partnership Grants (RPG) Program is administered by the Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), Children’s Bureau (CB) to improve the well-being of children affected by parental substance use disorders. In 2007, the NCSACW began providing programmatic technical assistance and training to grantees funded by ACF in a grant program awarded that year known as Regional Partnership Grantees (RPGs) that were authorized by the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-288). In 2011, the Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (P.L. 112-34) included a targeted grants program (section 437(f) of the Social Security Act), which directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to reserve a specified portion of the appropriation for Regional Partnership Grants to improve the well-being of children affected by substance abuse. The Supporting America’s Children and Families Act of 2024 (P.L. 118-258) reauthorized the RPG Program and technical assistance to be provided to grantees to improve outcomes for families affected by a substance use disorder.

The RPG projects support interagency collaborations and integration of programs, services, and activities designed to increase the well-being, improve permanency, and enhance the safety of children who are in, or at risk of, out-of-home placements as the result of a parent or caregiver’s substance use disorder. The partnerships implement a range of evidence-based interventions and programs.

The RPG Program has served over 53,000 children, 42,000 adults, and 36,000 families across 40 states. Some outcomes as a result of program participation include

  • Child safety improved significantly (less maltreatment, abuse, and neglect).
  • Children showed reduced behavior problems and better socialization; executive functioning remained stable.
  • Fewer removals from the home and increased permanency/reunification for children.
  • Substance use disorder treatment saw higher enrollment/completion and reduced high-severity substance use.

NCSACW provides technical assistance to the RPG awardees on various topics to strengthen grantee implementation of selected interventions. Technical assistance also helps strengthen cross-system collaborative practice and policy, which reduces the duplication of effort and resources. Areas of focus include:

  • Cross-systems collaborative capacity to streamline communities’ and states’ efforts to save resources
  • Program sustainability to ensure outcomes generated through the grant program are integrated into practice
  • Trauma-informed and evidence-based and evidence-informed services to children, parents, and family members to resolve root causes of intergenerational effects of addiction and child abuse or neglect
  • Family-centered substance use and mental health disorder treatment and recovery support services to ensure all members of the families heal and reduce long-term costs to service systems and programs
  • Lasting systems change to institutionalize programs and practices, resulting in reduced costs over time

Find Help with a Personal Situation

Substance Use and Mental Health Treatment Locator

To find treatment facilities confidentially, 24/7, please call 1-800-662-4357 (HELP).

To locate general treatment services, visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) Treatment Locator online or call 1-800-662-4357 (HELP). This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations. It is a free, confidential, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a year information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members needing treatment for a mental and/or substance use disorder.

To locate general treatment services, visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) Treatment Locator online or call 1-800-662-4357 (HELP). This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations. It is a free, confidential, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a year information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members needing treatment for a mental and/or substance use disorder.

National Child Abuse Hotline

If you suspect a child has been harmed by abuse or neglect, please call 1-800-422-4453.

If you suspect that a child has been harmed or is at risk of being harmed by abuse or neglect, call the National Child Abuse Hotline at Call the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453. Serving the United States and Canada, the hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with professional crisis counselors who—through interpreters—provide assistance in over 170 languages. All calls, texts, and chats are confidential. If you believe a child is in immediate danger of harm, call 911 first.

If you suspect that a child has been harmed or is at risk of being harmed by abuse or neglect, call the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453. Serving the United States and Canada, the hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with professional crisis counselors who—through interpreters—provide assistance in over 170 languages. All calls, texts, and chats are confidential. If you believe a child is in immediate danger of harm, call 911 first.

National Suicide Prevention Line

For free and confidential support for people in distress, 24/7, please call or text 988, chat 988Lifeline.org, or call 1-800-273-8255.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide or experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis, help is available and there are options to receive compassionate care. You can call or text 988 or chat 988Lifeline.org. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255). Both are confidential and available 24/7 to everyone in the United States and will connect you to a trained counselor at a suicide crisis center nearest you.

If you or someone you know are in crisis, thinking about harming yourself, attempting suicide, or harming another person, tell someone who can help right away. There are options to help you cope. Call the toll-free, 24-hour hotline of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255) to be connected to a trained counselor at a suicide crisis center nearest you. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is confidential support, available 24/7 to everyone in the United States.

Contact Us

The National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare offers free technical assistance to a variety of systems on making policy and practice changes to improve outcomes for families affected by substance use disorders and involvement with child welfare services. To learn more about technical assistance services or if you have a question please email NCSACW at ncsacw@cffutures.org or call toll-free at 1–866–493–2758.

Administration for Children & FamiliesSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
https://ncsacw.acf.hhs.gov

An official website of the Administration for Children and Families and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare