What's New and What's Coming from the National APS Training Center

Chris Dubble, MSW, Director, National Adult Protective Services Training Center
 

December 2023
 

The National Adult Protective Services Training Center (NATC), funded by the Administration for Community Living (ACL) and administered by the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA), continues our work for our third year of providing training to adult protective services (APS) throughout the United States. While it is hard to believe that we have been working on this endeavor for three years now, we are excited about what we are offering, the future of the NATC, and most of all, the partnerships we have built with the APS network throughout the country.

One of the most exciting updates is the addition of two new staff to our team. Kelly Wood and Dominique Jackson have joined Katie Wilson and I to support the project. Kelly is a talented and experienced instructional designer who has previously worked on projects for APS. Dominique comes to us with a strong background in project management for educational projects like ours and will help the NATC build the infrastructure necessary to organize our current work and plan our future endeavors. 

We also continue to work with our amazing partners, including Temple University, The Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission, The Academy for Professional Excellence at San Diego State University, Purdue University, and The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care. Our entire team maintains our commitment to designing practical and relevant educational opportunities that support the work of APS professionals.

Currently, we have over 4,600 learners from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and two territories enrolled at the NATC. Learners have completed over 28,000 core APS courses since the learning management system became available 16 months ago.

The NATC’s 24 core courses support the educational competencies listed in the Voluntary Consensus Guidelines for State APS Systems. These courses are self-paced e-learning, allowing learners to take them at their convenience and pace. At this year’s NAPSA conference, the NATC team worked with APS professionals throughout the U.S. to film video segments to be included in the core courses. The courses will begin to include these video segments in the spring of 2024.

There is also a lot more in store for 2024. We will deliver a series of enrichment courses that will support APS professionals and expand on the core courses currently available. The following course topics will be launched in 2024:

• Communication disorders
• Cryptocurrency scams
• De-escalation
• End-of-life 
• Interviewing people with disabilities
• Investigations in long-term care facilities
• Laws related to APS
• Motivational interviewing
• Person-centered service planning for people who are LGBT+
• Resident discharges from long-term care facilities
• Resources and services for people with disabilities
• Sexual abuse of people with disabilities
• Suicidality in older adults
• Supporting decision-making
• Working with people with developmental disabilities
• Working with the Ombudsman

We have not forgotten about supervisors and administrators for our courses in 2024. We are working on a series of courses on strengths-based leadership with a subject matter expert familiar with strengths-based philosophy and practice and the demanding work of APS administrators and supervisors. 

In addition to these courses for APS professionals, we are also working on a course about APS for allied professionals. We have heard from you and look forward to supporting you and your teams in educating the allied professionals about your work in your communities. We will have more information about this course in the summer of 2024.

In addition to the work on learning opportunities, the NATC, in conjunction with partner Purdue University, convened a panel on recruitment and retention. As we all know, these have been important issues for all of us in APS, especially after the pandemic. The panel will explore ways the NATC can support APS units nationwide in both areas. We will work with other resource centers like the APS Technical Assistance Resource Center (TARC) to get you the panel’s findings and suggestions.

We have a lot more planned, like enhancing our evaluation process, maximizing the learning management system user experience, customizing content specific to state and territory laws and regulations, enhancing current content, and developing more practice activities for courses. So please stay tuned, as 2024 will be an exciting year for the NATC, with many new learning opportunities.

If you haven’t already, please come check us out at natc.totaragovcloud.com. Remember that ACL funds this project to provide free educational support to APS. There is never a cost to learners or state or territory APS units to use the NATC.

If you have questions or want to discuss how the NATC can support your state or territory’s existing training efforts, please don’t hesitate to contact me at christopher.dubble@napsa-now.org. We are always happy to set up a virtual meeting to discuss how we can help.

NAPSA appreciates the support of ACL to administer the NATC. The NATC is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $2,002,806 with 75% funded by ACL/HHS and $505,806 and 25% funded by non-government sources. The contents are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, ACL/HHS or the U.S. government.