Valley health behavioral health training grant - the population of the northern shenandoah valley and surrounding area is facing increasing mental health needs while coping with a shortage of…

Valley health behavioral health training grant - the population of the northern shenandoah valley and surrounding area is facing increasing mental health needs while coping with a shortage of behavioral health providers to meet these growing demands. While winchester medical center includes an inpatient psychiatric unit with 36 beds and provides an adult intensive outpatient program, the number of outpatient providers to meet community needs has decreased with the retirement of three outpatient psychiatrists over the past two years. This project aims to increase the behavioral health workforce to meet the growing needs of our community, increase the number of providers available to provide services, and increase access to behavioral health services in our community. This project will address these goals through a two-pronged approach to the behavioral health workforce shortage in the area. The first approach is to increase the number of behavioral health providers in the area by providing supervision for employees and students who are non-licensed social workers and counselors. This project will provide funding for current valley health lcsws and lpcs to become certified to provide clinical supervision and allow them to provide supervision for non-licensed clinicians in pursuit of licensure. This program will also provide funding for lcsws and lpcs to supervise students who require field placement experience and supervision in their pursuit of graduation requirements. We expect this funding to increase the number of lcsws and lpcs who are licensed and are committed to providing services in our rural health area. The second approach is to increase the knowledge, skill set, and capabilities of our existing workforce to provide care for those with behavioral health needs in our community. This second approach will provide training for our providers in behavioral health care, training for our crisis/intake nurses to become certified as certified substance abuse counselors (csacs), and training for mental health techs and/or certified nursing assistants (cnas) or other ancillary staff or community members to become mental health or substance peer support staff. The overarching goal of the program is to prepare students to deliver evidence/based behavioral health interventions in rural and federally qualified health centers by increasing the number of behavioral health providers and increasing the skillset of current primary or other specialty providers. Goals: 1. Provide supervision for lcsw and/or LPC students in our behavioral health programs. 2. Expand the skill set of existing work force to increase access to behavioral health care. Objectives: 1. Enroll primary care providers in reach training in behavioral health to increase their comfort in meeting basic behavioral health needs of their patients. 2. Provide funding for mental health techs and/or cnas or other ancillary staff or community members to become trained peers in either substance use or mental health. 3. Provide funding for nurses or others to obtain formal certification as csacs.