Graduate students aspiring to become mental health care professionals will receive financial support to secure clinical time more quickly under a new collaboration between a major health care company and the University of Denver.
The $4.2 million Mental Health Workforce Advancement Project aims to increase and diversify Colorado’s mental health care workforce. Mental health-related conditions have steadily increased in recent years, including increased rates of depression, anxiety, overdose, and suicide. But state research shows the state has twice as many mental health job openings as other regions of its size. The number of behavioral health jobs increased by 152% from 2019 to 2022.
“This innovative initiative comes at a critical time, when one in five people in the state needs mental health services, but less than one-third have access to that care.” said Emily Matusevic, Director of Development and Partnerships at Gina & Frank Day. MSU Denver Health Research Institute Health Research Institute at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
The university operates the accelerator in partnership with the National Council on Mental Welfare, securing clinical hours and overseeing more than a dozen community mental health providers across the Front Range. The collaboration also involves establishing peer cohorts and providing learning materials.
Kaiser Permanente funds scholarships, oversees supervised clinic hours and analyzes program success.
Mike Ramseyer, president of Kaiser Permanente Colorado, said, “To effectively address the local impact of the national mental health crisis, we need communities that effectively represent the hardest-hit communities.” We need to develop the entire mental health workforce.”
What is the problem?
For many graduates of mental health degrees, such as adolescent counselors, child family therapists, and addictions counselors, it is difficult to obtain the necessary supervised clinical hours and to study licensure exams and test preparation materials. It’s too expensive to buy.
Master’s degree candidates may require 2,000 clinical hours and over 100 hours of instruction over approximately two years. One study found that 57 percent of graduates with master’s degrees in mental health fields do not become licensed due to the cost of licensure, burnout, and difficulty obtaining a license in a new state. .
Clinical supervision costs on average more than $10,000, and graduates may have to pay out-of-pocket if their employer does not subsidize the cost. The value of accelerator support to participants is $12,750 for pre-master candidates and more than $27,000 for post-master candidates.
Provided by: Andrew Sorenson/Kaiser Permanente
We need to diversify our mental health workforce
Barriers can be higher for underrepresented candidates, such as low-income graduates. The state report estimates that 81% of Colorado’s mental health providers are white and calls for workforce diversity.
Keanne Briske had a turbulent upbringing and grew up in the foster care system.
Provided by Kian Briske.
“It really sparked a passion in me to work with young people and understand their trauma and experiences and how that impacts their functioning,” she said.
For Briske, it was a “long and winding” road to becoming certified as a mental health counselor. Students must complete internship hours before graduating, which are usually unpaid.
“At the time, working full time on top of a side job was very taxing financially,” she said. After Briske earns her master’s degree in 2021, she will need to complete 2,000 hours.
As part of the collaboration between Kaiser and MSU Denver, she secured clinical time through Diversus Health in Colorado Springs. This provided a number of benefits.
“It can feel very isolating that other people aren’t going through what you’re going through, so this process allows you to know emotionally and psychologically that you’re not alone,” she said.
It also paid for study materials that would otherwise cost hundreds of dollars, and provided guidance and assistance in navigating the sometimes confusing licensing process and other hurdles.
Brieske hopes to be fully licensed by mid-2024 and eventually work with justice-involved youth.
“I was able to really tap into the resilience that I had and use it to give back despite all those barriers,” she said. “This field is fascinating…the delicate balance between science and art.”
Some people are kept out by economic barriers
Lived experience also drew C. Blank to the field. They grew up in low-income homes where family members struggled with drug use, abuse, and mental health issues. When Blank worked at homeless shelters, they noticed an important connection between mental health, poverty, and homelessness.
Blank, who graduated last summer with a double master’s degree in theology and social work and is certified as a clinical social worker, also ran into financial obstacles.
“At every stage of the process of becoming a certified clinician, there is often some kind of financial barrier that many people run into,” Blank says. “And that creates a pretty big disparity in the profession.”
“If you’re not connected to a network of resources, you’re likely going to have to pay for supervision yourself, a licensed mental health professional,” Blank says. “There’s a financial barrier literally every step of the way, and I didn’t anticipate having to dig into, ‘How do I get to what I need to do next?'”
Andrew Sorenson/Kaiser Permanente
Ms. Blank is currently completing her clinical time at All Health Network in Littleton working with adults with serious and persistent mental illness. Being part of the cohort and receiving financial support “relieved me of a lot of anxiety” and gave Blank a better understanding of how the mental health system operates as a whole.
“It was really fulfilling.”
The program’s first group included 33 participants, who are currently being prioritized for employment in nonprofit and public organizations serving vulnerable and underserved populations. Jobs are available at organizations within the state.
The program hopes to serve 87 postmaster candidates and 36 premaster candidates by 2025.
The Colorado collaboration is part of a national effort to launch a similar effort in Georgia. There are plans to expand to other states.
