Like this series was reported in January, all of Michigan faces healthcare recruiting challenges. The Michigan Board of Health‘c Michigan Health Workforce Index found that nearly all health care occupations in Michigan are experiencing and project workforce shortages through 2032. The report also notes that behavioral health occupations face a huge shortage, particularly in rural areas of the state.
Serving 10 counties, Northwest Michigan Health Department (HDNM) is leading an innovative program called “Seeding Success to Behavioral Health” that seeks to address the behavioral health needs of HDNM’s rural population. This cross-sector collaboration includes a wide range of stakeholders who are presenting ideas and taking action to recruit and retain behavioral health professionals across the region—and beyond.
Although the project addresses the workforce needs of all the various behavioral health practices, agencies, schools, and community-based organizations in HDNM’s service area, HDNM itself is no stranger to shortages. Its own behavioral health team includes a total of 32 positions, six of which are currently vacant.
We recently spoke to HDNM Deputy Director Holly Campbell and Dr Penny Foster-Fishman, Project Manager for Northwest Michigan Community Health Innovation Behavioral Health Initiativeabout how they are collaborating to solve labor shortages in their region.
Q: What types of behavioral health services does HDNM provide?
Campbell: Here at the Northwest Michigan Department of Health, our mental health providers are school-based. We are in 12 different areas. We have full clinical models where we have a nurse practitioner, a mental health specialist and a school public health technician. And we have several schools that only have a mental health professional available for kids to come and see – their workload is bursting at the seams. We are so spread out that many times it is difficult to get all the children who have needs the services they deserve. We are finding it difficult to hire enough people in our region to meet the need we have.
Foster-Fishman: Many mental health conditions first appear in youth and young adults, with approx 50% of all conditions starting at age 14. And they are young six times more likely to complete mental health treatment in a school setting than in a community setting.
Q: What type of behavioral health positions do HDNMs find most challenging to fill?
Campbell: In most school health care providers have their own [Master of Social Work degree]. They are currently in high demand. In the region the health department serves, as with all of rural Michigan, everyone is competing for the same social workers. I would guess that social worker positions are the hardest to fill because they are the most diverse degree.
Q: Why is it important that these positions are filled?
Campbell: Having clinicians in schools, whether it’s a social worker or a nurse, provides such needed services. Many of our families in rural Northern Michigan face several barriers, whether it’s transportation or insurance – we don’t discriminate based on the type of insurance or whether a family is underinsured or uninsured. Because we can provide these services in schools, parents do not have to leave work to come pick up their child and take them to therapy. The students do not miss as much time in class and manage to build such a special bond with this therapist at this school. If you think back in elementary or middle school to the people who had that kind of influence on you — that’s what we see going through these kids. They are able to work through some of their stuff. This could be difficulty with friends or problems at home. They may only need to be seen a few times and they are good. Or year after year they see the therapist so they can build a close relationship and have that mentor that we know is all about helping kids be resilient.
Q: How does the Seeding Behavioral Health Success Through Cross-Sector Action program address the behavioral health workforce shortage in Northern Michigan?
Foster-Fishman: We currently have 13 cross-sectoral action teams. Three are focused primarily on the issue of retention and recruitment – one is solely focused on recruiting interns because we know we need to expand our range, and interns are one of the most effective ways to do that. Interns are very likely to land their first job where they intern. Our internship website currently has 21 organizations in Northwest Michigan. Searchable by population, degree type and opportunity type. This was very effective in getting the word out to field placement officers at major programs and universities across the state. Many of the websites in our region are not designed to recruit people, as the Fortune 500 companies say we must be, to make them attractive to the younger generation. So, we’re going to make lunch and learn how to make it.
We also have an action team that is focused on recruiting professional suppliers. They conducted a series of conversations with HR executives, key leaders, and supervisors at organizations that provide behavioral health services to identify some of the biggest recruiting challenges. They have identified four challenges that we have the capacity to make an impact on, and we are in the process of offering a lunch and training series to build local capacity to address these issues.
We also collected data from 182 behavioral health providers to understand their current state of burnout, their intention to leave their current job, and their work life experience. We created a series of interventions, tools and lunch and training around the findings. What we are trying to do in the simplest way is to build organizational capacity to maintain healthy working and living conditions.
Estelle Slootmaker is a working writer focused on journalism, book editing, communications, poetry and children’s books. You can contact her at [email protected] or www.constellations.biz.
Photos courtesy of Penny Foster-Fishman and Holly Campbell.
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