WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Proposition 1 includes a new funding approach to develop tactics for growing the behavioral health workforce in California. The newly released Behavioral Health Workforce Strategy identifies gaps in care and provides guidance to partners on how to expand and diversify the workforce to increase access to behavioral health services in every community, at every level of care.
SACRAMENTO – This week, the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) presented its strategy on how to grow and diversify the behavioral health workforce to the California Health Workforce Education and Training Council after development with 200+ stakeholders. This strategy is designed to better understand and equitably solve the workforce shortages in behavioral health services, fully leveraging ongoing funding available through Prop 1 (estimated $95 million annually), as well as other workforce investments.
These efforts will increase the supply of behavioral health workers in California, by providing financial and training support for individuals seeking careers in behavioral health fields (e.g., scholarships, loan repayments, paid clinical and apprenticeship opportunities) and support for organizations and educational institutions that grow the workforce – with a goal of ensuring all Californians have access to equitable, affordable, and quality behavioral health care.
“This is a big step for the State of California in addressing the behavioral health crisis,” said HCAI Director Elizabeth Landsberg. “Having a statewide behavioral health workforce strategy to identify the gaps and grow this critical workforce in the Golden State is no small feat, and no single organization or agency will be able to solve our behavioral health workforce challenges alone. Through this strategy, we look forward to continuing to coordinate with other state departments, as well as our other partners, to identify common goals, use actionable data, and prioritize and coordinate to make the biggest impact as possible.”
Behavioral Health Transformation is the California Health and Human Services Agency’s (CalHHS) work to implement Proposition 1. This behavioral health workforce strategy focuses on modeling the supply and demand of California’s behavioral health workforce to better understand gaps now and in the future, while identifying strategic interventions that HCAI and other entities can implement to target key shortage drivers.
This strategy will be primarily funded through new behavioral workforce allocations approved through Proposition 1 and are expected to be matched through a new federal waiver that the state has applied for that will result in up to $2.5 billion in workforce funding over a period of five years. Funds will focus on developing and diversifying the behavioral health workforce that serves Medi-Cal members and works in public and safety net settings.
WHY THIS MATTERS: The Behavioral Health Workforce Strategy facilitated a discussion with the California Health Workforce Education and Training Council on how the state can identify regional workforce shortages for various behavioral health roles and create equitable and effective solutions to address those gaps. The strategy will guide HCAI and the broader ecosystem of behavioral health workforce partners on where to focus funding – as this initial unveiling of the strategy and modeling will not only benefit state agencies, but also the many partners who do this important work. Council members and members of the public provided feedback on the importance of training health workers who will work in safety net settings, expanding education capacity in areas with the greatest shortages, investing in allied health professions, and addressing moral injury and burnout among health workers – all with equity as a guiding principle.
There are many disparities in access to care, racial and geographic representation of professionals versus populations, and health coverage acceptance. Given persistent gaps in access to care, the strategy seeks to understand the greatest barriers to sufficient supply, equity, and optimization of the workforce, and will recommend role- and geography-specific interventions that are evidence- and experience-based.
With the release of the strategy, HCAI will continue to refine it and will incorporate input from the state’s behavioral health partners and agencies. Additional information about the strategy will be provided in the months ahead, including at the November 2024 meeting of the California Health Workforce Education and Training Council.
Those wishing to provide input during the continued development of the strategy are encouraged to contact HCAI at behavioralhealthworkforce@hcai.ca.gov. Input will be taken up until Oct. 14, 2024.
Additional materials that were presented in the Council meeting can be found here.
BIGGER PICTURE: The Behavioral Health Workforce Strategy is one part of this larger effort and builds on California’s other major behavioral health initiatives including the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal initiative, the California Behavioral Health Community-Based Organization Networks of Equitable Care and Treatment Demonstration proposal, the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, Medi-Cal Mobile Crisis, 988 expansion, and the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program.
More information about Proposition 1 and Governor Gavin Newsom’s efforts to transform California’s entire mental health and substance use disorder system to provide better behavioral health care for all Californians can be found at mentalhealth.ca.gov.