The Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) is traveling across the state this summer to hold listening sessions with grant fund recipients.
The Nebraska Legislature awarded $25.5 million in funding to BHECN last summer to address behavioral health workforce challenges. BHECN then allocated the funds to 107 behavioral health organizations and providers across the state.
Organizations and providers could use the funds in four different categories, according to BHECN Director Marley Doyle. Those categories include telebehavioral health, training opportunities, recruitment and retention and supervision stipends.
So far, Doyle said funding recipients have been able to hire additional employees to increase their serving capacity. Some have started training programs, which she said is especially critical for rural areas.
“In our research, students tend to stay where they train,” Doyle said. “So the more opportunities we can have for training in rural communities, the more likely we are going to have providers in those communities.”
The first listening session was in Kearney on June 11. The sessions are a way for funding recipients to learn from each other, and it’s also a way for BHECN to hear about which programs are having the most impact, especially as they consider future fund allocations.
“When we’re thinking about sustainability and moving projects forward, we can really listen to what some of these programs are doing and decide what we want to move forward in the future,” Doyle said. “And then also use this as a model that can maybe be replicated across our state and then in other states as well.”
The behavioral health workforce shortage and geographic disparities is nothing new, Doyle said. The United States Health Resources and Service Administration recognizes 88 out of Nebraska’s 93 counties as mental health professional shortage areas.
