Archive for the ‘Workforce Crisis’ Category

Rural Workforce Development: Critical Challenges

The critical challenges that are associated with rural workforce development remain a significant issue in America. We have an obligation to explore the best ways of caring for the underserved rural population. Currently we have a health professions crisis unfolding. The federal government projects...

Primary Care Integration: Alternative Workforce Strategies for Community-Based Behavioral Health Service Organizations in the Era of Physician Shortages

It has been many years since the surgeon general report declared that vastly poor health outcomes for persons suffering from behavioral health disorders was a public health crisis. Lives filled with long term disability and early mortality caused, in part, by service fragmentation within the U.S....

BHN Summer 2019 Issue

"The Behavioral Health Workforce"   Articles in This...

System Change and Service Providers: Opportunities and Challenges in Addressing Unmet Needs

In 2011, a priority of New York’s Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was Medicaid redesign, with the substantive presence of behavioral health services in both the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) and the subsequent Delivery System Reform Incentive Program (DSRIP). The focus was to reduce inpatient...

Will “System Transformation” Transform the System? Before We Celebrate: 20 Questions That Need Answers

System transformation is underway in New York State and throughout the United States through the development of elaborate financial structures such as accountable care organizations and health homes. No doubt these new structures will change the way business is done in the mental health system. But...

Co-Occurring Fatigue: Compassion, Political, and Oppression Fatigue: Understanding and Meeting Our Special Needs as Helping Professionals

For those of us who work in caregiving environments, we are constantly presented with emotional challenges. Compassion Fatigue symptoms result from the chronic stress of care giving work. Leading traumatologist Eric Gentry notes that people who are attracted to caregiving often enter the field...

The Current State of OMH Housing

New York is one of the most expensive states in the country to live in, while the consumers that our nonprofit OMH housing providers serve are among the poorest. This combination requires New York State to step in to help make available enough safe and affordable housing for the most vulnerable...

The Challenges of Hiring and Retaining Top Talent

Management consultant, educator, and author Peter Drucker stated, “Making a living is no longer enough. Work also has to make a life.” In this economic climate, many organizations have designed initiatives to nurture its rising talent. It makes good economic sense, as high-performance...

An Organization’s Multidimensional Response to the Economy

When I reflect on the impact of the economy on mental health services, I find it impossible to describe the effect beyond the organization that I manage in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Wellspring is a nonprofit multi-service mental health organization that serves children, adolescents, young adults and...