News Blog
A Resource for Behavioral Health Workforce Planning
Hundreds of reports have been issued in past decades with recommendations for strengthening the mental health and substance use workforce. The Center for Workforce Solutions released within the past year a framework identifying the levers of change for improving the workforce. It then created a cross walk of more than 400 recommendations from various reports and incorporated selected strategies within that framework. The resulting document is a valuable aid to those responsible at the federal, state, and local level for developing workforce plans.
The Center for Workforce Solutions was created by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing in collaboration with The College for Behavioral Health Leadership and Health Management Associates. The recommendations reviewed during this project were extracted from reports by federal and state policymakers, national associations, foundations, and others. Hyperlinks are provided in the report to 24 key sources of the recommendations for readers who wish to access original sources.
The levers of change identified in this framework include workforce expansion, payment, clinical models, quality and accountability, regulation and policy, and organizational culture. As one example, the ‘payment’ lever includes recommendations on scholarships, grant and loan forgiveness, Health Service Corps, equitable and transparent compensation, increased peer wages, wage add-on programs, Medicaid fee schedule reform, alternative payment models, and prospective payment systems.
To learn more:
The full report, Crosswalk of National Behavioral Health Workforce Recommendations, is available online.