___Training to Increase Engagement Skills (TIES)

Training to Increase Engagement Skills, or TIES, is a training program designed to educate mental health professionals about the range of barriers families face in accessing mental health services -- while teaching evidence-based engagement interventions to circumvent these barriers. 

TIES is based on accumulated evidence that improving family engagement in mental health services increases the family’s satisfaction and retention in these services, while enhancing mental health and clinical outcomes of youth and their families.

Why is TIES Important?

• Two-thirds of children in need of mental health care do not receive services
• Rates of service use are at their lowest in low-income, urban communities
• No-show rates can be as high as 50%
• Drop-outs occurring after two or three sessions are common

View a short video about the TIES training.

The Empirical Evidence for this Training

TIES is based on over a decade of research conducted by CTAC Co-Director Mary McKay and colleagues.  Click on the articles below for more information on this training.

• Evaluating a social work engagement approach to involving inner-city children and their families in mental health care

• Increasing access to child mental health services for urban children and their families.

• Addressing the barriers to mental health services for inner-city children and their caretakers

• Engaging families in child mental health services

The TIES Training Program

The TIES Training Program has completed all trainings at this time. To learn about other upcoming trainings, please check our home page regularly. 

Click here to learn more about the training. Additional information about the TIES training program, created in collaboration with Danya International, can be found at www.tiesengagement.com.