Creating a competent workforce in Vermont: Promoting public–academic linkages and human resource development.

Abstract

Vermont has had a long history of both publicacademic collaboration and human resource development related to its mental health workforce. However, in the past, as in most other state systems, program and services development and reallocation of resources from institutional to community programs has proceeded without the necessary systematic attention to the long-term human resources development capacities critical to successful outcomes for consumers and their families. The Vermont Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, Division of Mental Health (DMH), is in the process of fundamentally restructuring its service system to implement state-of-the-art community services for its two primary mental health client target populations: children and adolescents experiencing a severe emotional disturbance and adults with psychiatric disabilities. In both areas, Ver-mont is seen as a national leader, both in the development of innovative services as well as in developing processes to foster fundamental systems change.In this chapter, we present a brief description of the history of public-academic linkages in Vermont and of current efforts to expand those linkages in order to better meet the ongoing needs of the Vermont mental health workforce. History of Public-Academic Linkages in Vermont DainingMuch of the public-academic collaboration in Vermont, in the area of community-based services for adults with psychiatric disabilities and children CREATING A COMPETENT WORKFORCE IN VERMONT 157