A National Action Plan for Workforce Development in Behavioral Health

Abstract

Across all sectors of the behavioral health field there has been growing concern about a workforce crisis. Difficulties encompass the recruitment and retention of staff and the delivery of accessible and effective training in both initial, preservice training and continuing education settings. Concern about the crisis led to a multiphased, cross-sector collaboration known as the Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce. With support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, this public-private partnership crafted An Action Plan for Behavioral Health Workforce Development. Created with input from a dozen expert panels, the action plan outlines seven core strategic goals that are relevant to all sectors of the behavioral health field: expand the role of consumers and their families in the workforce, expand the role of communities in promoting behavioral health and wellness, use systematic recruitment and retention strategies, improve training and education, foster leadership development, enhance infrastructure to support workforce development, and implement a national research and evaluation agenda. Detailed implementation tables identify the action steps for diverse groups and organizations to take in order to achieve these goals. The action plan serves as a call to action and is being used to guide workforce initiatives across the nation.

Ready, Willing, and Able: A Framework for Improving the Public Health Emergency Preparedness System

“…A similar cross-sector, multimodal strategy was used successfully to generate input for a consensus-based national agenda for behavioral health workforce development. 52…”

Geographic Variation in the Supply of Selected Behavioral Health Providers

“…Strategic goals, developed by this group, to improve the behavioral health system include: the implementation of a research agenda to address the dearth of behavioral health workforce data and the development of the behavioral health workforce. 10 The purpose of this study is to provide current national estimates and comparisons of the availability of psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychiatric nurse practitioners (NPs) across Census Divisions and rural-urban areas. This information is vital to guide the development and implementation of strategies for improving treatment access and for workforce development.…”

A mixed-method analysis on the impacts of a system-driven implementation of multiple child evidence-based practices on community mental health providers.

“…Additionally, community therapists often provide psychosocial services to trauma-exposed populations, which places them at increased risk of distress or secondary trauma (Bride, 2004; Meldrum, King, & Spooner, 2002). Moreover, top-down pressures to carry larger caseloads, comply with increasing documentation and regulatory demands, and achieve higher levels of clinical productivity via billing (Patterson-Silver Wolf, Dulmus, & Maguin, 2012; Skriner et al, 2018) may create high-stress environments that contribute to low morale, job dissatisfaction, and turnover (Beidas, Marcus, et al, 2016; Hoge et al, 2007; Paris & Hoge, 2010). Within system-driven EBP implementation contexts, there have been mixed findings concerning other workforce impacts.…”