About the Alaska Training Cooperative

The Alaska Training Cooperative Mission

The Alaska Training Cooperative (AKTC) promotes career development opportunities for direct support professionals, supervisors and professionals in the field engaged with Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority beneficiaries* by ensuring that technical assistance and training is accessible and coordinated.

* Beneficiary groups include: behavioral health / mental illness, developmental disabilities, chronic alcoholism and other substance related disorders, aging / Alzheimers and other dementia, and traumatic brain injuries.

The Learning Management System

The Learning Management System (LMS) is a web-based catalog of both face-to-face and distance training opportunities in Alaska.

The Alaska Training Cooperative (AKTC) Learning Management System (LMS) is a collaborative effort with the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (Trust), University of Alaska, and providers statewide who serve Trust beneficiaries.

Technical Assistance

The Alaska Training Cooperative staff provide technical assistance to agencies, organizations, businesses and associations providing services to the beneficiary populations of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. The specific purpose of this Technical Assistance is workforce development for direct service staff and their immediate supervisors.

• Assist in the delivery of training provided by agencies, organizations, businesses and associations to a broader audience via distance delivery (audio conferencing, video conferencing, web-based), sharing of training materials or coordination of shared training.
• Use of the AKTC Learning Management System to share specific trainings, provide marketing/outreach through catalogue listings, offer registration and reporting.
• Update current training materials to align content and learning objectives with the competencies identified in the Alaska Core Competencies for direct care workers in health and human services.
• Assist with identifying resources, existing trainings, and possible solutions to address an identified training need for your agency, organization, business, association or community.

For additional information regarding the Technical Assistance we offer, please contact Diana Carpenter, diana@alaskachd.org

Training Solutions

Alaska Core Competencies for Direct Care Workers in Health and Human Services

The increasing recognition of the critical role of direct care workers in health and human service systems has demonstrated the need to improve the training and preparation that individuals receive for these demanding jobs. Rather than centering on a narrow service sector, the Competencies are based on the premise that there is a common or core set of competencies shared by workers across multiple sectors. The AKTC provides assistance and support to embed the Alaska Core Competencies into workforce training.

Contact: Betsy Chivers, betsy@alaskachd.org
Lisa Cauble, lisa@alaskachd.org

Full Lives Conference for Direct Support Professionals

The Full Lives Conference features national and Alaskan experts on key issues that affect direct service staff and those they support.

Frontline Leadership Institute

The Alaska Training Cooperative provides this three-day training institute offering insights into successful strategies for developing leadership skills and supporting your frontline support staff.

Contact: Betsy Chivers, betsy@alaskachd.org
Lisa Cauble, lisa@alaskachd.org

Alaska Brain Institute

The institute focuses on community-based, long-term brain injury rehabilitation and takes a team approach in examining this strategy.

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)

The adult Mental Health First Aid course is appropriate for anyone 16 years and older who wants to learn how to help a person who may be experiencing a mental health related crisis or problem. Topics include first aid around anxiety, depression, psychosis, and addictions.

• Youth Mental Health First Aid - Designed to teach parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, peers, neighbors, health and human services workers, and other caring citizens how to help an adolescent (age 12-18) who is experiencing a mental health or addictions challenge or is in crisis.
• Mental Health First Aid for Older Adults - Often a spouse, partner or family member does the majority of caregiving for older adults. This training can help in the recognition of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts or gestures, as well as the role that substance abuse plays in the mental health of a loved one.
• Mental Health First Aid for Public Safety - A course specially designed for police officers, first responders, corrections officers and other public safety professionals to help them better understand mental illnesses and providing them with effective response options to de-escalate an incident without compromising public safety.
• Mental Health First Aid for Higher Education - In addition to the five-step MHFA action plan and broad range of signs and symptoms that are covered, the course specifically focuses on reducing stigma and empowering campus communities.

Contact: Jill Ramsey, jill@alaskachd.org

Non-Violent Crisis Intervention (CPI)

This is a two-day training for a one-year certification in crisis prevention and de-escalation techniques to assist with increasing care, welfare, safety and security.

Contact: Jill Ramsey, jill@alaskachd.org

Hearing Voices that are Distressing

This training provides a simulated experience of what it may be like to hear voices. Designed to assist people with understanding the challenges of people who experience a mental illness and hear voices through an experiential training.

Contact: Jill Ramsey, jill@alaskachd.org

Alaska Gatekeeper Suicide Prevention Course with a QPR Approach (Question, Persuade, Refer)

An educational program that teaches ordinary citizens how to recognize a mental health emergency and how to get a person at risk the help they need. This is an action plan that can result in saved lives.

Contact: Sarah McConnell, smcconnell@alaska.edu

Behavioral Health Continuing Education

The Alaska Training Cooperative provides non-academic trainings designed to meet licensure and certification needs of Alaska's behavioral health workforce.

Contact: Sarah McConnell, smcconnell@alaska.edu

Supervision and Leadership Learning Networks

A series of short, distance-delivered trainings provided by professional experts that addresses a topic or skill/knowledge area important to direct service providers and/or their supervisors.

Contact: Betsy Chivers, betsy@alaskachd.org
Lisa Cauble, lisa@alaskachd.org

Alaska Integrated Employment Initiative Project

The Alaska Training Cooperative has partnered with the Alaska Integrated Employment Initiative (AIEI) to increase the number of youth and young adults with I/DD who are employed or self-employed in integrated settings.

Web-based, Anytime Trainings

Introduction to Disabilities

Provides a wide perspective of basic information about several common types of disabilities. Included are descriptions of some of the challenges individuals experience that are diagnosed with these disabilities remembering that each individual's experience is unique.

Contact: Betsy Chivers, betsy@alaskachd.org

Ethics and Boundaries

Addresses professional ethical behavior relative to conflicts of interest, personal and client property, solving ethical dilemmas and recognizing issues of ethics and boundaries in the workplace.

Contact: Jill Ramsey, jill@alaskachd.org

Anger Management and Stress Reduction

Increase understanding of managing feelings of anger, productive and unproductive expressions of anger, thinking errors, conflict resolution and the COPE method of problem solving.

Contact: Jill Ramsey, jill@alaskachd.org

Mental Health Basics

Designed for direct care workers providing services to people with mental illness diagnoses. This course provides an overview of major mental health diagnoses, symptoms and associated pharmacology.

Contact: Jill Ramsey, jill@alaskachd.org

Prevention of Abuse & Neglect of Vulnerable Adults

Intended to educate direct service workers regarding the dynamics of adult abuse and neglect, the laws intended to protect this population and reporting obligations under these laws.

Contact: Jill Ramsey, jill@alaskachd.org

Assistance with Self-Administration of Medication

For providers working in non-licensed facilities or providing services in a non-licensed setting, this training will meet the Senior and Disabilities Services new Home and Community Based Waiver regulations (7 AAC130.227) for staff training on Assistance with Self-Administration of Medication.

Contact: Betsy Chivers, betsy@alaskachd.org
Lisa Cauble, lisa@alaskachd.org

Acquired & Traumatic Brain Injury Case Management

Covers the basic information that will benefit case managers in working effectively with individuals experiencing Acquired & Traumatic Brain Injury (ATBI). This training is approved by SDS as one of the criteria for eligibility to render Medicaid-funded ATBI.