Behavorial Health Initiative Action Team
Action Team Goal
The Recruit Behavioral Health Providers Action Team is working to provide resources on successful provider recruitment strategies to organizations across the region and to build relationships with regional and state universities that offer behavioral health-related degree programs to strengthen the provider pipeline into northwest Michigan.
Targeted Problem
Many organizations across the region have numerous long-standing job openings for behavioral health providers. These vacant openings have caused access to behavioral health services to become more difficult, and many existing providers are no longer able to take on new clients due to their already heavy workload. Numerous challenges have led to the shortage of providers across the region, including housing and childcare shortages, low insurance reimbursement rates, and non-competitive pay rates.
Our Collective Work
To address the region’s behavioral health provider shortage issue, the Recruit Behavioral Health Providers Team has worked to assess the recruitment challenges and successful recruitment strategies that exist across the region. With the information from their assessments, the team has worked to expand on the successful recruitment strategies by providing educational opportunities to the region and by forming partnerships with Michigan-based universities to strengthen the region’s provider pipeline. See below for the resources and tools developed by this Team and a list of Action Team members who have contributed to this work.
Understanding Recruitment Challenges and Successes
The Recruit Behavioral Health Providers Action Team hosted a provider recruitment listening session in October of 2023 to better understand the recruitment challenges and successes organizational leaders face when recruiting new staff.
Enhancing Awareness of Behavioral Health Loan Repayment Programs
The Recruit Behavioral Health Providers Action Team identified loan repayment program participation as a successful recruitment tool for organizations looking to fill vacant provider openings. To make enrollment in these programs more approachable for organizations, the Team hosted two Lunch and Learns during which experts described each of the programs, how to enroll, and what participants can expect. They also developed a FAQ Guide that further explains program participation.
Enhancing Recruitment Techniques
The Recruit Behavioral Health Providers Action Team developed a set of successful recruitment strategies that can be used by organizations when working to fill open staffing positions.
Strengthening the Education to Career Pipeline
The Recruit Behavioral Health Providers Team is holding meetings with leaders from various behavioral health-related graduate programs at Michigan-based universities to explore strategies to strengthen the provider pipeline into the region.
Design and Implementation Team Members
Since 2022, 19 stakeholders in the NW MI region have been engaged in the work of this Action Team.
Leader
- Barb Conley, MD – Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department Board of Health
Members
- Kate Dahlstrom – NAMI
- Brett Sinclair- Raven & Lotus
- Alicia Schlehuber – Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District
- Dan Thorell – Health Department of Northwest Michigan
- Joanie Hazelton – Ferris State University
- Susan Stendel – District Health Department #10
- Lisa Blackford – Northwestern Michigan College
- Kim Corliss – Northern Michigan Health Services, Inc.
- Erica Longstreet – Northern Lakes Community Mental Health
- Claire Skerback – Retired Clinician
- Paige Recker – Michigan Center for Rural Health
- Nancy Stevenson – Northern Lakes Community Mental Health
- Dr. Scott Monteith – Behavioral Health Clinician
- Gaia Pampu – Grow Benzie
- Andy Ulrich – United Way of Wexford-Missaukee Counties
- Trenton Lee – North Country Community Mental Health
- Alison Arnold – Central Michigan University
- Amanda Rothfuss – Health Department of Northwest Michigan
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO SUPPORT OUR WORK?
Utilize the loan repayment program resources this team developed to make enrolling yourself or your organization in a program easier. Adding loan repayment opportunities as a benefit to existing and incoming employees can enhance recruitment and retention efforts. Use our recruitment suggestions to explore ways to strengthen your recruitment strategies.
