Graduates in mental health fields face barriers to filling critical shortages. A new MSU program aims to change that

Graduate candidates studying to be mental health care professionals will be able to secure clinical hours faster with financial support under a new collaboration between a major health care company and a Denver university.

The $4.2 million Mental Health Workforce Accelerator aims to increase and diversify the number of mental health care workers in Colorado. Mental health-related conditions have been on the rise for years, including higher rates of depression, anxiety, overdoses and suicides. However, the state has twice as many mental health job vacancies as similarly sized areas, according to a state study. Behavioral health job openings grew 152 percent from 2019 to 2022.

This innovative initiative comes at a critical time when one in five individuals in our state need mental health services and less than a third receive that care, said Emily Matuszewicz, director of development and partnerships at the Gina and Frank Health Institute. Day. at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

The university, in collaboration with the National Council on Mental Wellness, is leading the accelerator, providing clinical placement hours and overseeing nearly a dozen community mental health providers across the Front Range. Collaboration is also about creating a peer group and providing study materials.

Kaiser Permanente is funding the fellowships, overseeing the supervised clinical hours and analyzing the success of the program.

To effectively address the local impacts of the national mental health crisis, we must develop a community-wide mental health workforce that effectively represents the hardest-hit communities, said Mike Ramseier, president of Kaiser Permanente Colorado.

What’s the problem?

For many graduates with mental health degrees, adolescent counselors, child and family therapists, and addiction counselors, it is challenging to obtain the required supervised clinical hours and very expensive to pass the licensing exams and test preparation materials.

Candidates with master’s degrees may need 2,000 clinical hours and 100 or more hours of supervision over approximately two years. One study estimates that 57 percent of graduates with master’s degrees in mental health fields do not go on to complete licensure due to licensing costs, fatigue, and difficulty getting licensed in a new state.

Clinical supervision costs an average of more than $10,000, and graduates may have to pay out of pocket if their employer does not subsidize that cost. The value of accelerator support for participants is $12,750 for pre-masters candidates and more than $27,000 for post-masters candidates.

Courtesy Andrew Sorenson/Kaiser Permanente

There is a need to diversify the mental health workforce

Barriers may be higher for underrepresented candidates such as low-income graduates. This state report estimates that 81 percent of mental health providers in Colorado are white and calls for workforce diversification.

ChiAnne Brieske had a troubled family upbringing and grew up in the foster care system.

Courtesy ChiAnne Brieske.

It really created a passion for me to work with young people, to understand their traumas, their experiences, how that is affecting their functioning, she said.

It’s been a long and winding road for Brieske to get licensed to be a mental health counselor. Before graduating, students must take internships, which are usually unpaid.

Working full-time in addition to a second job at the time was extremely difficult financially, she said. After receiving a master’s degree in 2021, Brieske must earn 2,000 hours.

As part of the Kaiser-MSU Denver collaboration, she provided clinical hours through Diversus Health in Colorado Springs. It has brought many benefits.

It’s emotional and psychological to know you’re not alone in this process because you can feel very isolated that no one else is going through what you are, she said.

He also paid a stipend for study materials that would otherwise cost hundreds of dollars and offered guidance and help navigating the sometimes confusing licensing paperwork and other hurdles.

Brieske hopes to be fully licensed by mid-2024 and eventually work with youth involved in justice.

I was able to really take that kind of resilience that I had and use it and be able to give it back despite all those obstacles, she said. The field is fascinating. It is a delicate balance between science and art.

Financial barriers can shut some people out

The lived experience also attracted C. Blanck to the field. They grew up in a low-income household where family members struggled with substance use, abuse and mental health challenges. When Blanck worked at a homeless shelter, they realized the important connections between mental health, poverty and homelessness.

Blanck, who graduated with a dual master’s degree in divinity and social work last summer and is pursuing a clinical social worker license, also faced financial hurdles.

For every single step in the process of becoming a licensed clinician, there is some type of financial hurdle that many people often encounter, Blanck said. And that creates a pretty significant disparity in the profession.

If you’re not connected to a network of resources, you’ll likely have to pay for supervision yourself, said Blanck, the licensed mental health professional. I didn’t expect a financial hurdle for literally every single step, and I needed to dig into, OK, how do I accomplish this next thing that I need to do?

Andrew Sorenson/Kaiser Permanente

Blanck is now completing clinical hours working with adults with serious and persistent mental illness at All Health Network in Littleton. Being part of the group and receiving financial support has been a huge anxiety reliever and has allowed Blanck to gain a greater understanding of how the entire mental health system works.

It has been really fulfilling.

The first cohort of programs has 33 participants who now have preferred placements with nonprofit and public entities serving vulnerable and underserved populations. Placements are in organizations across the state.

By 2025, the program hopes to serve 87 post-master’s and 36 pre-master’s candidates.

The Colorado collaboration is part of a national effort that will launch a similar accelerator in Georgia. There are plans to expand to other countries.