Behavioral Health Best Practices

Best Practices by State:

California

Loma Linda University Mental Health Pipeline Program: Extensive program for high school and community college students who shadow mental health experts and are given mental health training.
Loma University Department of Social Work and Social Ecology Mental Health Pipeline Program Meetings: Meetings to promote mental health and raise awareness about current issues co-led by faculty and students.
Educacion Primero: Medical students meet monthly with 4th and 5th graders to discuss topics in health and science planting seeds of interest in higher education.
Tom Bradley Mini Medical School: Outreach program aiming to expose elementary students to medical and scientific information.
Middle School: Hippocrates Circle Program: Inspiring under-represented youth from diverse backgrounds to pursue careers in medicine.
Health Career Academy: Provides high school students a structured curriculum based on the drama series ER, which is run by medical students to increase interest in medical professions.
USC Med-COR Program (The Medical Counseling, Organizing, and Recruiting program): Increase economic and racial diversity of medical professionals by providing academic support.
Bridging the Gaps Research Program: Provides 8-week long program focusing on research and clinical experiences.
Keck Prep Scholars: Provides personalized support for pre-health students
USF is offering classes 1 day a week and the occasional Saturday for the graduate program: Allows pursuit of higher education for full-time workers.
The Healthcare Foundation in Northern Sonoma County has partnered with University of San Francisco to offer full tuition scholarships in what is called the Mental Health Talent Pipeline.
Wright Institute Pipeline to Advanced Degrees: Under-represented students (BIPOC) and first-generation college students in the San Francisco Bay Area supported through the Psychology Internship Program and Diversity Recruitment Program.
UnitedHealth Group Collaboration: UC San Diego and UC San Francisco aims to diversify their developmental psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners through funding.
San Diego increasing funding to build career pathways for peer support specialists.

Colorado

2008 Colorado’s School Counselor Corps Grant Program: Used to completely fund school counselor’s salaries & benefits as well as additional training.
Colorado Behavioral Health Association (BHA): a grant program aimed at recruiting younger people of color, first-generation students, and build diversity.
Colorado Psychology Internship Consortium (CO-PIC): 3 interns are selected from a pool of ~ 50 applicants to serve and meet the needs of rural and underserved populations.

Connecticut

UCONN Health Enrichment Programs: Promote activities where second-year health professional students visit rural communities and shadow health-care workers.

Illinois

Behavioral Health Workforce Center: Working to increase access to effective behavioral health services through coordinated initiatives to recruit, educate, and retain professionals in behavioral health.
CRSS Success Program: Designed to support students with lived experience of mental health or substance use recovery to successfully complete all requirements necessary to obtain either the Certified Recovery Support Specialist (CRSS) or Certified Peer Recovery Specialist (CPRS) and enter the behavioral health workforce.
PaCE Program: Provides guidance to students, families, and educators on what types of experiences and information a student should have in order to make the most informed decisions about college and career planning, beginning in 8th grade and continuing through high school.

Indiana

The Community Behavioral Health Academy is working to prepare students for dual licensure as a licensed clinical social worker and licensed clinical addiction counselor.

Maryland

University of the District of Columbia Pathways to Behavioral Health Degrees Act of 2023: Aims to fully fund MSW degrees for DC residents who have a bachelor’s degree.

Massachusetts

MGH Institute of Health Professions (IHP): Developing online resources and certification programs for RNs seeking to work in mental health.
Physician Assistant Studies: An accelerated Mental Health Certificate program for new graduates and PAs to provide advanced training in psychiatric care.
Occupational Therapy: Increasing training of mental healthcare using stipends and no cost training in partnership with OT’s at Salem Hospital’s Partial Hospitalization Program.
The Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers (CHC) has administered the Behavioral Health Internship Pipeline Program (BHIPP) to expand diversity and distribution of behavioral health workers by funding those agreeing to stay and work in their communities for several years.

Minnesota

Fund supervision of mental health interns.
Behavioral Health Career Exploration Program: Focused on high school students to discuss behavioral health workforce careers.

Missouri

Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training for Professionals Program: A 4-year training program designed to prepare 120 (30 per year; 15 per campus) trainees for professional clinical practice in integrated behavioral health (IBH). Each participating student is receiving a stipend of $10,000 for the whole program.

Montana

Montana Rural Mental Health Preparation/Practice Pathway: Prepares graduate counseling candidates to gain experience as counselors in rural communities.
Head’s Up Camp: Program geared toward high school students, they listen to local behavioral health professional speakers and receive training to advocate for their peers in the community (includes suicide prevention and anti-bullying).

Nebraska

BHECN Ambassador Program: Funds community programs that promote educating youth on behavioral health, prioritizing those in rural/underserved communities.

New Mexico

New Mexico Rural Health Professional Tax Credit: Offers $5,000 credits to clinical psychologists who provide rural care.

New York

SUNY/OMH Mental Health Scholarship Program for Under-represented and/or multilingual students

North Carolina

Behavioral Health Screening for Transitional Age Youth (ages 16-25): Using the U.S. IBM MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters data, the project will investigate extent to the setting and which transitional age youth receive BH screenings.
Defining the Perinatal Mental Health Workforce

Ohio

Ohio School Psychologist Association’s Ohio School Psychology Internship program

Working to develop the following:

Oregon

HB 2949 bill which was established to improve and increase the behavioral health BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) workforce. Including funding pipeline development, scholarships for undergraduates and stipends for graduate students, loan repayments, and retention activities.

Pennsylvania

Adult Mental Health First Aid: 8-hour course that teaches participants how to recognize symptoms of mental health or substance abuse challenges in adults.
Youth Mental Health First Aid: This training is 8 hours as well and allows participants to learn about how to detect mental health challenges in children.
Trauma-Informed Care: Series of workshops that cover childhood trauma and resilience.

Tennessee

Working to develop the following:

Texas

Enhance already existing loan repayment programs: Direct funds to public sector employment within agencies providing mental health services and employment in rural areas.
State-Wide Paid Internships: This initiative would create a pipeline from clinical internship to employment through Texas Institutions of Higher Education for behavioral health workers.
Statewide Remote Supervision Network: Will provide board-required supervision remotely for graduates with degrees in social work, psychology, and counseling pursuing their clinical license.
Supervisory Track of Public Service Workers: Promote LCSW’s LMFT’s, LPCs in the workforce to board-licensed supervisory status.
Locality Pay/Rurality: Establish State Salary Schedules that are adjusted based on cost-of-living for the area. Professionals in underserved areas could then make more than the average salary.

Washington

West Virginia

West Virginia University School of Social Work is creating virtual reality gamification to simulate a day in the life of a social worker.

Wisconsin

Club Scrub: Promotes behavioral health careers with teenagers.
Aspirus Scholars Program: Funds medical students, including those in psychiatry, who make a commitment to staying within the underserved areas of the program for at least 3-5 years.

Behavioral Health Best Practices

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