Integrated care workforce development: university-community collaboration

ABSTRACT

Behavioral health workforce shortages to provide quality care services for children, adolescents, and transitional age youth are well established. This paper highlights the workforce shortage and the need to infuse interprofessional education to engage in integrated care for children, adolescents and transitional age youth with behavioral health needs. A specialized training curriculum to build behavioral health workforce in Nevada was conceptualized and delivered through 10 workshops under the auspices of the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) funded Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) grant funded in 2014. To train existing workforce and in alignment with the spirit of the grant to build behavioral health workforce and existing workforce, workshops were extended to social service providers in the community. In an effort to enhance university-community collaboration, workshop presenters were invited from various units in the University and from social service agencies in the community. Implications of such training are addressed from a policy, practice, research, and university-community collaboration perspective.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental/behavioral health workforce
• integrated care
• interprofessional education
• specialized training

Acknowledgments

Dr. Maureen Rubin served as Co-PI of the HRSA funded project

Ms. Rachel Kilgore worked as a Graduate Assistant for the HRSA funded project and is currently a Doctoral student at the University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number: G02HP27987, The Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training for Professionals and Paraprofessionals for $1,385,397 from 9/30/2014-9/29/2018. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government.

Notes on contributors

Maureen Rubin

Maureen Rubin, MA., MSW., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and currently serves as the Director of Graduate Studies at the School of Social Work, Aurora University, IL.  Her academic and clinical work focuses on the quality and delivery of mental health care in India and the US. Her grant supported presentations and publications have focused on addressing issues related to the mental health of children; adults with severe and persistent mental illness; health disparities, interprofessional education; and workforce development.

Rachel C. Kilgore

Rachel C. Kilgore is a doctoral student at the School of Medicine Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO. Her research is focused on how stem cells in the airway epithelium change during Cystic Fibrosis. She has her master’s degree in Secondary Education and previously taught Chemistry, Biology and Anatomy and Physiology for grades 9-12.