WICHE Mental Health Report
February 04, 2008
Volume 2, Number 2
ARCHIVED ISSUES:
Februrary - December 2007
RECENT ISSUE: January 2008
In this Issue
- Director's Voice
- InFocus: Behavioral Health Occupations
- Staff Activities *NEW*
- FYI *NEW*
- Jobs in the West *NEW*
Director's Voice
Looking back over the past year, I am amazed at how busy the WICHE Mental Health Program has become. It is a testament to the work of our staff that so many of our member states and others are tapping the resources of the program. Today, as I prepare this brief note, our program has over 25 projects currently underway in 12 of the 15 WICHE states, as well as other states and nationally. Beginning with this issue of our eNewsletter, our staff section will begin to share information about many of these projects.
By far, the issue of behavioral health workforce development looms large across our region and the nation. We have learned a great deal about workforce development from our projects in six different states and with the Annapolis Coalition for Behavioral Health Workforce Development. This is a critical issue area for our program and we see a common set of issues across states, however solutions almost always start at home. Some of these issues seem to be:
- Inadequate supervision and mentoring of the existing workforce to ensure quality, safety, mentoring and professional growth.
- Lack of strategic and comprehensive planning and coordinated action to address workforce development.
- Fragmented or non-existent communication between behavioral health disciplines in higher education, and between academic programs and the practice setting/public mental health system.
- Training and education programs that do not share a vision of core competencies with public mental health systems. Often there is a complete disconnect between what employers/consumer want and what higher education delivers.
- Dependence upon a “whomever shows” for education, training, and employment, rather than a strategic process of recruitment and mentoring of a “who we need” pipeline.
There has been progress across our region to begin to address these issues, and from our future eNewsletters and our website, you can get a feel for what is making a difference in places like Alaska, California, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, and South Dakota. We learn much from our work with our diverse set of state partners, and the strength of the WICHE partnership is truly the synergy of those lessons being shared across the WICHE West.
- Dennis Mohatt, Vice President of Behaviroal Health, WICHE
InFocus: Behavioral Health Occupations
Components of a Strong and Effective Workforce, Revisited
Establishing and sustaining a behavioral health workforce involves several components:
- A profile of present population and demographics: November 2007 Issue;
- An estimation of the prevalence of behavioral disorders: January 2008 Issue;
- An analysis of the professional occupations available to serve the community: This Issue;
- A picture of the higher education programs designed to supply well-trained professionals: March 2008 Issue.
This issue focuses on the various professional occupations that are generally included when considering behavioral health. The Bureau of Health Professions defines the core mental health professionals as psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatric nurse specialists, and marriage and family therapists. The numbers of these professionals are compared against the population of any given area to create Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas (MHPSAs). The purpose of designating MHPSAs is:
1. to assure that mental health services are available and accessible to underserved populations;
2. to assist in the retention and recruitment of mental health providers in designated areas;
3. to assist in the determination of unusually high mental health needs.
There are several types of MHPSAs as listed below:
Geographic Single County - whole county designated as HPSA
Geographic Service Area - portions of a county, or portions of multiple counties, designated as a geographic HPSA
Population Groups - a population within an area that is designated as a HPSA
State Mental Hospitals - State run mental health inpatient facilities
Correctional Institutions - Federal and State prisons and youth detention facilities
Comprehensive Health Centers - entities receiving Section 330 funds to operate comprehensive health centers
FQHC Look-a-Like - Federally Qualified Health Centers certified as meeting 330 requirements but not receiving grant funds
Rural Health Clinic - certified as Rural Health Clinics by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
American Indian - Tribal Health and Urban Indian programs serving Federally Recognized tribes
Alaska Native - sites run by and/or serving the Alaska Native populations
IHS - Indian Health Service sites serving Federally Recognized tribes
Other - public or private non-profit medical facilities demonstrated to serve a designated area or population group
The MHPSAs can be determined for individual states at the Health Resources and Services Administration web site. Using MHPSAs is only one gauge to determining the strengths and weaknesses of a state’s mental health workforce. Each state may choose to count professions not included in the Bureau of Health Professions definition (school psychologists, psychiatric technicians, substance abuse counselors, etc.). In addition, states may also run evidence-based programs (e.g. certified peer counselors) as a creative way to augment their workforce using local resources.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics website provides state-level data for each behavioral health profession. For example, in May 2006, there were 420 clinical, counseling, and school psychologists listed in Hawai`i. These numbers are estimated from data collected from employers and may or may not match numbers collected by the state licensing boards. The Hawai`i Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs lists 746 psychologists in 2007. The differences in numbers are likely due to differences in sampling methodology and estimation practices. These differences emphasize the importance of looking at various data sources to gather the information necessary to present an accurate picture of the mental health workforce.
It is also important to assess the future trends of the workforce in relation to population estimates. Knowing where the potential gaps will likely be, allows states to coordinate with institutions of higher education to encourage more graduates in needed areas. The next issue will review the role of the education system in the behavioral health workforce.
TOP OF PAGEStaff Activities
Jessica Tomasko continues to work with South Dakota as they move forward with a Systems of Care for Children Pilot Project. SD is committed to providing services that are child-centered and family-focused, in which the needs of the child and family dictate the nature and intensity of services provided; community-based, with the locus of services and decision-making responsibility resting at the family and community level; and culturally and linguistically competent, with agencies, programs, and services that are responsive to and respective of the cultural, racial, ethnic, spiritual, language and value differences of the populations they serve. In January, she traveled to Rapid City to conduct community readiness interviews with several agencies and families. Included in the interviews were families receiving mental health services, Behavior Management Systems (the community mental health center), Court Services, the Department of Corrections, Child Protective Services, and Special Services Case Workers from the Rapid City School District. In March, Jessica will return to Rapid City to present her findings to the group and assist with the development of an action plan.
FYI...* NEW *
2008 Science and Service Awards Will Honor Implementation of Evidence-Based Mental Health and Substance Abuse Interventions
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has issued a call for applications for its 2008 Science and Service Awards, a national program that recognizes community-based organizations and coalitions that have shown exemplary implementation of evidence-based mental health and substance abuse interventions.
A maximum of five awards will be made in each of the five categories: substance abuse prevention, treatment of substance abuse and recovery support services, mental health promotion, treatment of mental illness and recovery support services, and co-occurring disorders. To be eligible for an award, an organization must have successfully implemented a recognized evidence-based intervention. Examples include those that are published in scientific literature and/or appear on a Federal and/or state registry of evidence-based interventions.
Both public sector (State, local, territorial, tribal) and private sector organizations (including community-based organizations and/or coalitions) are eligible to compete for these non-monetary awards. Developers of an evidence-based intervention or their research collaborators, previous award winners, and Federal agencies are not eligible for the awards.
All applications will be rated using the following four criteria: community need, sustainability, accurate implementation, and results. Independent experts will review and recommend for an award the top five scoring submissions in each of the five categories. SAMHSA Center Directors and staff from the agency’s Office of the Administrator will review and approve award finalists. One or more reviewers may also make a site visit to finalists prior to the announcement of the award recipients.
Winners will receive a commemorative award and will be further recognized on www.samhsa.gov and through SAMHSA News. Award winners do not receive any financial compensation.
Complete information is available on the SAMHSA Web site at www.samhsa.gov/scienceandservice by clicking on “Application Materials for 2008 Awards.”
Applications must be emailed by March 31, 2008 to dfixsen@fmhi.usf.edu. For those without access to email, the application must be postmarked by midnight on March 31, 2008 and mailed to Dean Fixsen, Ph.D., Science and Service Award Coordinator, University of South Florida, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MHC 2312, Tampa, Florida 33612.
SAMHSA is a public health agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agency is responsible for improving the accountability, capacity, and effectiveness of the nation’s substance abuse prevention, addictions treatment, and mental health service delivery systems.
ADA Best Practices Tool Kit for State and Local Governments
During the past five years, the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice has worked with communities across the United States to improve access to state and local government for over 3 million people with disabilities.
We found that, despite good intentions, many communities did not have the knowledge or skills needed to identify barriers to access in their programs, activities, services, and facilities. They did not know how to survey buildings to identify physical barriers. They did not know how to review programs and policies for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). They asked us to help fill their knowledge gap.
The Civil Rights Division is assembling this Tool Kit to help communities better understand the issues involved in providing equal access for people with disabilities. We encourage state and local government officials to use this Tool Kit to learn:
- how to survey facilities and identify common architectural barriers for people with disabilities;
- how to identify red flags indicating that their programs, services, activities, and facilities may have common ADA compliance problems; and
- how to remove the barriers and fix common ADA compliance problems they identify.
The tool kit can be found on the Department of Justice's Americans with Disabilities Act website.
Report Reveals Links Between States’ Mental Health Status and Treatment-Access
First-ever report ranks states based on depression status; calls for mental health monitoring system to inform state policies impacting access to care
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (November 29, 2007)—Mental Health America today released its report, “Ranking America’s Mental Health: An Analysis of Depression Across the States,” a first-of-its-kind study examining state and national data for statistical associations between access-to-care factors and actual health outcomes, namely a state’s mental health status and suicide rate. Included in the study is a ranking of the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on rates of depression and suicide. South Dakota is found to lead the nation with the best depression status while Utah ranked last. For the complete rankings, visit www.mentalhealthamerica.net/go/state-ranking
- Mental health resources - On average, the higher the number of psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers per capita in a state, the lower the suicide rate.
- Barriers to treatment - The lower the percentage of the population reporting that they could not obtain healthcare because of costs, the lower the suicide rate and the better the state's depression status. In addition, the lower the percentage of the population that reported unmet mental healthcare needs, the better the state's depression status.
- Mental health treatment utilization - The higher the percentage of the population receiving mental health treatment, the lower the suicide rate.
- Socioeconomic characteristics - The more educated the population and the greater the percentage with health insurance, the lower the suicide rate. The more educated the population, the better the state's depression status.
In addition, the report found the following factor to be significantly associated with the level of mental health service utilization in a state:
- Health Insurance parity - The more generous a state's mental health parity coverage, the greater the number of people in the population that receive mental health services.
Mental HealthAmerica is the country's leading nonprofit dedicated to helping all people live mentally healthier lives. With our more than 320 affiliates nationwide, we represent a growing movement of Americans who promote mental wellness for the health and well-being of the nation—everyday and in times of crisis.
"Ranking America's Mental Health: An Analysis of Depression Across the States" was supported through an unrestricted educational grant from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
Contact: Heather Cobb, (703) 797-2588 or hcobb@mentalhealthamerica.net
Free TeleTraining for Interpreters, Administrators, Disability Services Providers, and others
February 25, 2008 at 2:00 PM (Eastern) until 3:30 PM entitled:
An Inside Look: What Educational Interpreters Need to Know about Mental Health Interpreting
Presenter:
Charlene Crump, B.S., CI/CT, ASLTA-Q, QMHI, is the statewide Mental Health Interpreter Coordinator for the Office of Deaf Services, Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. In this capacity, Ms. Crump has been responsible for developing the Mental Health Interpreter Training initiative and developing certification standards that have been adopted by DMHMR and Alabama State Code. Her work in Mental Health Interpreter training has received national recognition including by the National Alliance of Mentally Ill (NAMI) and is internationally recognized by the Charter of Linguists.
Moderator: Cindy Camp, LA/TX Outreach Specialist, PEPNet-South,
Disability Specialist in Deafness at Jacksonville State University
Co-Moderator: Jennie Bourgeois, LA/TX Outreach Specialist, PEPNet-South
Coordinator of Deaf Services at Louisiana State University
Both RID & BEI CEUs are available at no cost for the live TeleTraining. Individuals seeking CEUs must register no later than February 18, 2008 and complete the required paperwork that will be sent to them prior to the TeleTraining. The recorded version of the TeleTraining will not be eligible for attaining CEUs.
This one and a half hour TeleTraining is designed to share information about the unique challenges of interpreting in the mental health setting. Many educational interpreters may think that they will not or do not interpret in mental health situations. However, most interpreters will find themselves in this situation at some point in their career.
Some of the topics that will be discussed in this TeleTraining are:
- The prevalence of mental health interpreting in community and educational interpreting
- Various techniques that are currently considered the standard for best practice that may be counter-effective when working with individuals who are mentally ill
- Confidentiality and issues of alliances in mental health settings compared to non-mental health settings
To register for the TeleTraining, please complete the online registration form at http://www.pepnet.org/training/train080225/
Jobs in the West
Recent Job Announcements Webpage
On this page you will find recent job announcements pertaining to either the WICHE West or to rural mental health areas.
Analyst in Disability Policy
Congressional Research Service, Washington DC
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) seeks an Analyst in Disability Policy to serve in the CRS Domestic Social Policy Division.
The analyst will focus on issues such as understanding and reconciling different definitions of disability that are utilized in research as compared to programmatic definitions; employment trends for persons with disabilities and mechanisms to support people with moderate to severe functional limitations; the interrelationship between federal programs and private mechanisms to improve the income security of persons with disabilities; and the role of the federal and state governments and the private sector in the delivery, quality assurance, and financing of services (long-term care, income security, health, etc.) for persons with disabilities.
The analyst prepares objective, non-partisan analytical studies and descriptive and background reports on issues of national or international significance; provides personal consultation and assistance to congressional committees, Members, and staff on public policy issues throughout the legislative process; and participates in or leads team research projects and seminars. The analyst is also expected to develop over time the skills necessary to provide public policy and legislative analysis and consultation to congressional committees, Members, and staff at increasingly sophisticated levels.
This position is being offered at the GS-13 level ($82,961- $107,854). To apply online (preferred), visit http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo or call 202.707.5627 to request an applicant job kit. Please refer to vacancy #080018 in all correspondence. Applications must be received by February 28, 2008. CRS is the public policy research arm of the U.S. Congress and is fully committed to workforce diversity.
Director, Cultural and Linguistic Competence (Program Administration Manager III)
Job Description: The Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services is seeking an experienced professional to lead the development and expansion of the capacity to provide cultural and linguistic competency services within the Commonwealth of Virginia’s mental health, developmental disability and substance use disorder system. Major responsibilities are as follows. Provides statewide leadership in the development and education of culturally competent service providers, stakeholders, and staff within the public and private sector. Participates in statewide and regional planning to integrate corporate cultural and linguistic competence within DMHMRSAS’ system, policies, and stakeholder activities. Provides statewide leadership in the development of a statewide plan and state of the art performance outcome measures including objectives and timeframes, to assess the level of achievement and performance of cultural and linguistic competence at the systems, organizational, and individual levels. Provides technical assistance and serves as a statewide resource for the public system on matters related to cultural and linguistic competence and dissemination of information to advance competency, and produces periodic reports on the status of achieving cultural and linguistic competency within the Commonwealth of Virginia. Provides consultation, legislative, and policy development expertise necessary for service accessibility and capacity enhancement appropriate to successful recovery, self determination, and empowerment of clients served, particularly multi-cultural populations. Participates in and facilitates the collaborative development and review of a statewide and regional cultural competency plans designed to enhance client outcomes, reduce stigma and disparities, and enhance consumer training, outreach, and prevention efforts. Provide leadership in identifying associated data elements needed to report program and service outcome measures and identify progress. Supports specific strategies and actions to achieve a culturally and linguistically competent service system and workforce. Attends and participates in conferences and educational training for development and skill building to enhance work products and services. Qualifications: Knowledge of cultural and linguistic competence principles and concepts; and of organizational change principles and concepts. Progressively responsible leadership experience in planning for, implementing, and evaluating enhanced access and culturally/linguistically competent program and service development and delivery for disability and/or specialty populations, and wraparound philosophy and practice, community based services and supports with an orientation to family-driven, consumer guided and culturally relevant systems and services. Demonstrated ability to work in a multiple task and multidisciplinary environment. Experience in working with multicultural communities/populations, multicultural program policy, program design and implementation. Experience in mental health, developmental disability, substance use disorder, or disability population specific policy development. Demonstrated ability to use statistical data and software to evaluate programs and services for specialty populations. Prefer demonstrated ability to fluently communicate in speech and in writing, bilingually in Spanish and English. Graduation from an accredited college or university with major course work in clinical social work, behavioral psychology, or a related field of study. Related experience may be substituted for education.
Salary: Hiring Range: $70,000-$85,000
How to Apply: Please apply online with the Recruitment Management System (http://www.dmhmrsas.virginia.gov/emp-CODetails.asp?JobId=768) Only accepting online applications. This position is open until filled.
Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services (804) 786-1078 www.dmhmrsas.virginia.gov
Closes: Open Until Filled
WICHE MH Personnel
Dennis Mohatt, MA,Vice President for Behavioral Health
Mimi McFaul, Psy.D., Associate Director
Chuck McGee, MA, Project Director
Candice Tate, Ph.D., Research and Technical Assistance Associate
Fran Dong, Statistical Analyst
Nicole Speer, Ph.D., Research and Technical Assistance Associate
Jessica Tomasko, LCSW - PIP, Research and Technical Assistance Associate
Christa Smith, Psy.D. Postdoctoral Fellow
Jenny Shaw, Administrative & Project Coordinator
Debra Kupfer, M.H.A., Consultant
Kyle Sargent, M.P.P. Consultant
Tell Us How the WICHE Mental Health Program Has Impacted You
The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education is seeking your comments on how our services have affected mental health services in rural communities. Please send an e-mail telling how WICHE has influenced you to Candice Tate . We would also love to hear your nominations for promising rural practices. Feel free to also contact us with requests for state-specific rural assistance or to just ask us a question about our experience with rural mental issues and public policy.
Subscriber Services
To subscribe or unsubscribe to the WICHE Newsletter send an e-mail to Editor Candice Tate
