Drs. Carol Coohey and Miriam Landsman of the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice  have published an article "Evaluation of a Suicide Counseling Skills Course for Social Work Students" in the Journal of Social Work Education. Social work students often lack adequate training to effectively intervene with clients considering suicide. Coohey and Landsman describe integrating suicide counseling skills development into a course and evaluate whether it improves students’ skills and confidence.

Dr. Brad Richardson, research scientist and adjunct associate professor at the University of Iowa School of Social Work, is co-author of the recently released second edition of “Life Skills Progression™, An Outcome and Intervention Planning Instrument for Use With Families at Risk” from Brookes Publishing.

In a new report, Carol Coohey and Carrie Means of the Iowa Peer Workforce Collaborative describe how Family Peer Support Specialists help families navigate Iowa’s school system. Family Peer Support Specialists provide a bridge between parents and schools so children with behavioral and educational challenges can get what they need.

Prof. Miriam Landsman, executive director of the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice, was awarded a Hancher-Finkbine Medallion on April 16 at the 107th Finkbine Dinner Celebration.

In this report by Carol Coohey, Abigail Heaton, Kellee Thorburn McCrory, and Miriam J. Landsman, peer supervisors talk about what they believe peer workers need and what supervisors need to know to supervise peer workers.

The Iowa Peer Workforce Collaborative’s program manager, Kellee Thorburn McCrory, was a panelist at NAMI Iowa’s 2024 Mental Health Day on the Hill February 20, 2024, in Des Moines.

NRC Research Scientist Carol Coohey received a $75,000 grant in July 2023 from the Telligen Community Initiative (TCI) to study peer and employer challenges in diverse Iowa communities that will support and grow a skilled, integrated, and recovery-oriented peer workforce.

Carol Coohey and Miriam Landsman presented the results of an evaluation of a suicide intervention skill training program at the Council on Social Work Education's Annual Meeting in October 2022. This quasi-experiment found that students completing a suicide-specific intervention skills course demonstrated stronger skills and greater confidence in applying these skills than students who completed a skills course without suicide-specific content. 

NRC staff member Sherry Gao presented at the 2022 American Evaluation Association (AEA) conference on Friday, November 11, 2022. The presentation covered a meta-analysis regarding how the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted students’ learning motivation and academic achievement, with school closures and a shift from face-to-face learning to remote learning.

The NRCFCP's Peer Workforce Collaborative project was featured  in the Iowa Department of Public Health's (IDPH) April 2022 Newsletter. The Peer Workforce Collaborative is a five-year grant with the goal of recruiting, screening, and training Peer Support Specialists and Recovery Peer Coaches in the state of Iowa.