The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is delighted to announce the selection of 11 states in two NASHP Policy Academies: the Behavioral Health Workforce Policy Academy and the Children’s Behavioral Health Policy Academy. These academies are designed to advance state behavioral health policies that increase access to high-quality behavioral health services and supports across the continuum of care. NASHP will work with participating states over the next two years, providing individual and multi-state technical assistance support to identify, exchange, and implement cross-sector policy strategies, payment, delivery, and financing approaches. NASHP is pleased to work with the following states toward their goals to build capacity across the behavioral health continuum of care:
Behavioral Health Workforce Policy Academy
- Alaska
- Kansas
- Mississippi
- New Mexico
- Oregon
Children’s Behavioral Health Policy Academy
- Delaware
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Rhode Island
- Wyoming
The Behavioral Health Workforce Policy Academy will engage five states with a 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 an 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.
The Children’s Behavioral Health Policy Academy will engage six states to identify, develop, and implement policy changes to strengthen their continuum of care for children and youth who are at risk of or have serious behavioral health needs. Participating state teams will advance a range of strategies, including efforts focused on strengthening the array of programs, services, and supports (e.g., tailoring crisis service systems); improving cross-system alignment (e.g., developing interagency agreements to streamline access to care); enhancing screening, assessment, and referral systems (e.g., implementing standardized behavioral health screening and assessment); and supporting the children’s behavioral health workforce and infrastructure (e.g., modifying training, certification, and licensure requirements).
Teams from each of these states will receive technical assistance and engage with each other and national experts as they develop and strengthen policies to support their behavioral health systems. At the end of each Policy Academy, NASHP will share insights and promising practices with other state policymakers and the public to improve behavioral health policies across states. To learn more about state efforts in these areas, see NASHP’s Behavioral Health Workforce and Children’s Behavioral Health resources.
This resource 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 are an endorsement, by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. government. For more information, please visit www.HRSA.gov.
