To apply to the State Policy Academy on the Behavioral Health Workforce, contact Rebekah Falkner at rfalkner@nashp.org to receive the application materials. Applications are due Friday, April 26, 2024.
The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) is inviting states to apply to participate in a multi-state technical assistance opportunity on improving the behavioral health workforce — with a special focus on the adult continuum of services and supports. Limited access to high-quality behavioral health interventions, exacerbated by increased demand coupled with workforce shortages and maldistribution presents a significant challenge to state efforts to modernize their behavioral health systems. States are actively seeking to advance policy, regulatory, and investment strategies to address this issue and have identified a pressing need for peer exchange and strategies to adopt or scale promising approaches. Optimizing the workforce to ensure access to evidence-based and emerging best practices across the continuum depends on multiple state levers as well as alignment with federal and non-governmental partners. Successful state efforts require cross-state agency collaboration to design and implement long-term strategies.
In response, NASHP is launching a two-year Behavioral Health Workforce Policy Academy with up to five states, in which participating state teams will collaborate to develop and implement behavioral health workforce plans. To achieve necessary cross-agency collaboration and effectively align resources, teams should be comprised of state officials with decision-making authority across relevant agencies including mental health and substance abuse authorities (or combined behavioral health authorities), Medicaid, departments of labor or workforce, departments of education/higher education, and any other implicated health and human services agencies.
More details about the policy academy and NASHP’s application process are provided below. Interested state teams are encouraged to participate in an informational webinar that will be held on March 28, 2024, about this opportunity and another policy academy NASHP is offering focused on children’s behavioral health. States considering or interested in applying to the State Policy Academy on the Behavioral Health Workforce should contact Rebekah Falkner at rfalkner@nashp.org to receive the application materials. All state applications should be submitted to Tier McCullough at tmccullough@nashp.org by Friday, April 26, 2024.
What’s in It for States?
State teams will participate in expert–informed peer knowledge exchange and receive group and individual technical assistance. Policy academy resources will support participants in the development, implementation and/or strengthening of cross-sector strategies to bolster the behavioral health workforce. Technical assistance will include strategies that promote equitable access to behavioral health care, including in rural and other geographically underserved areas, and among populations with disparate behavioral health outcomes. States will also be encouraged to leverage or build on existing behavioral health workforce initiatives in the state.
Areas of Focus: Increasing Access to the Adult Continuum of Care through Growing and Modernizing the Behavioral Health Workforce
This policy academy will focus on developing and advancing state-level behavioral health workforce improvement strategies with a focus on optimizing team-based, evidence-based interventions in the adult-serving systems. States may pursue a variety of strategies, including a focus on effectively incorporating unlicensed, skilled workforce (including training, certification, and career path opportunities), recruiting and retaining licensed workforce, developing new workforce types and strategies to expedite entry into the workforce, administrative and regulatory simplification, data strategies to inform policy and program implementation, other approaches that increase the pipeline of qualified behavioral health professions, telehealth and teleconsultation extenders, and creating the payment and delivery and regulatory environment for optimal team-based care.
Best practices and lessons learned from the policy academy’s work will be shared with other states and will contribute to NASHP publications, webinars, and other public-facing information.
State Team Requirements
Each state team should meet the following criteria.
States will identify a team of approximately five members, composed of senior state officials or administrators with decision making authority (such as state behavioral health agency officials, governors’ health policy advisors, state Medicaid officials, labor or workforce leads). The team may include additional state officials (leaders from offices of peer services, higher education, career and technical education, licensure regulators, departments of commerce, or other agency leaders or representatives of unlicensed, skilled workforce, particularly if those representatives are state officials).
- State goals: Applicants should describe 2–4 specific and measurable policy goals, a realistic timeline, and proposed activities to achieve them. Strong candidates will demonstrate foundational planning for expanding the behavioral health workforce and the integration of that workforce into payment and delivery models.
- Technical assistance needs: Applicants should describe what specific expertise, technical support, and other resources would be helpful in making progress on their goals.
- Letters of support: It may not always be feasible for agency leaders or representatives of workforce professions to be directly involved in the academy. In these cases, a letter of support from these officials is encouraged.
Policy Academy Timeline
- Tuesday, March 19, 2024: Request for applications released
- March 28, 2024: Informational webinar
- April 26, 2024: State applications due to NASHP
- May 2024: Selected state teams notified
- June 2024: Policy academy kick-off
- June 2024–May 2026: Targeted technical assistance, peer-to-peer webinars, in-state visits and calls
- September 8, 2024, and September 2025: In-person meeting
Informational webinar: Interested state officials are encouraged to participate in an informational webinar on the state policy academy on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at 2 p.m. ET to learn more, ask questions, and explore how the policy academy can support your state’s workforce goals and initiatives.
To apply: Email Rebekah Falkner (rfalkner@nashp.org) to request the short application form. Applications are due by April 26, 2024.
Application Process
- Email Rebekah Falkner at rfalkner@nashp.org to let us know that your state is considering or interested in applying to NASHP’s Behavioral Health Workforce Policy Academy. The email should include your state’s team lead and/or key point of contact and their contact information (title, agency, work phone, and email).
- After emailing to express interest, the state team lead/key contact will be provided with a brief application. Each state team should complete this application and submit it to Tier McCullough at tmccullough@nashp.org by April 26, 2024.
- NASHP will review states’ applications and select states to participate in the policy academy. All states that applied will receive notification in May 2024.
Any questions about the Behavioral Health Workforce Policy Academy or NASHP’s application process should be directed to Rebekah Falkner at rfalkner@nashp.org.
About NASHP and This Project
NASHP is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with over three decades of experience in helping state policy makers lead. NASHP provides expertise, convenes states, shares innovations and best practices, and supports state policymakers in making concrete and sustainable health system reform.
This policy academy opportunity is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the National Organizations of State and Local Officials as part of a three-year award. The information, content, and conclusions are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov.
