Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program - The Southeastern Louisiana University Florida Parishes BHWET project aims to provide graduate education opportunities for rural southeast Louisiana residents seeking workforce advancement and experiential training in clinical social work and nursing careers. The goal of the project is to strengthen and build the behavioral workforce committed to working in the medically underserved targeted areas with children, adolescents, and young adults. The project aims to recruit a diverse group of students interested in working in rural, underserved communities. This project will implement a model of interprofessional education in our university setting that will prepare students to work effectively on integrated healthcare teams. An integrated behavioral health (IBH) model utilizes nurses and social workers as primary professionals involved in team-based care combining medical and behavioral health services The Southeastern project will provide 12 students (six graduate nursing students and six masters of social work students) with a specialized, comprehensive training experience designed to foster the skills and competencies needed for integrated behavioral health practice. The project will address a high need for behavioral health professionals and services in the targeted six rural parishes (counties) surrounding Southeastern Louisiana University. It will focus on providing an interprofessional educational opportunity to 48 graduate students over four years and also build in efforts to retain those students to work in the targeted areas after graduation. Southeastern is ideally situated to meet this goal as 79% of its graduates typically remain in the targeted area surrounding the university post-graduation. Five of the six parishes being targeted are designated as high-need based on their rurality and impoverished populations. In addition, the 2023 America’s Health Rankings Report places the state at the bottom of the list (50th), as the least healthy state in the U.S. The report cited major medical and behavioral health problems that are exacerbated by social and economic factors, the environment, poverty, and unhealthy behaviors, such as substance abuse and obesity. There are four objectives guiding the work of the program, including: 1) to recruit a diverse group of graduate social work and nursing students interested in working with children, adolescents and young adults with behavioral health needs in rural underserved communities; 2) to increase the number of new or expanded community partnerships with experiential training sites in the targeted high-need areas; 3) to promote collaborative training by using team-based models of care to integrate behavioral healthcare into interprofessional primary care, and 4) to recruit, develop, and expand the capacity to train clinical supervisors and preceptors to support and mentor behavioral health trainees. The project’s reach goes beyond just recruiting and training students for work in the field. Its broader focus is to strengthen the behavioral healthcare resources and workforce overall in the targeted areas. Program staff will form collaborative relationships and involve community health providers in assessing and meeting the training needs of area health and mental health providers and children and families in the communities where it is needed the most. The Florida Parishes BHWET project will strengthen the knowledge, skills, and competence of a diverse group of new professionals entering the workforce; it will strengthen the supply of clinically trained social work supervisors and preceptors in the targeted areas and build a collaborative network of integrated health care service providers who are able to meet the behavioral health needs of children, adolescents, and young adults. The ultimate goal is to increase access to behavioral health care services for the underserved communities surrounding Southeastern Louisiana University.
