October 2018 - August 2019
The University of Michigan School of Public Health and its Consortium of partners request continued support of the Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center, which was established in 2015 with a mission to conduct research to produce a workforce to meet the Nation’s behavioral health needs. The Center services the workforce responsible for prevention and treatment of mental health conditions and substance use disorders. The Consortium represents a range of professions, health plans, and academic partners who work collaboratively to address the research needs of the field.
The Center’s portfolio of research activities will collectively address three priority research areas: strengthening the behavioral health workforce to address the consequences and impact of substance use disorders and mental illness; addressing behavioral health shortage and maldistribution; and improving service delivery and reimbursement. Key objectives for the Center include: 1) completing eight studies per year, along with Rapid Response Requests; 2) expanding the number of Consortium members or partnerships each year; and 3) expanding reach to new audiences and stakeholders by disseminating study findings in multiple formats.
Proposed Year 1 studies address a range of behavioral health workforce needs including: investigating the education requirements and telehealth restrictions that potentially inhibit delivery of medication-assisted treatment; developing a national workforce recruitment strategy for rural and frontier areas; examining service delivery in Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics; developing a new measure of workforce capacity for the opioid crisis; investigating the financing of collaborative care models to enhance workforce capacity; examining the training and care delivery of peer providers in behavioral health; assessing reimbursement inequities and their impact on service delivery; and describing the roles of primary care providers in behavioral health service delivery. The strength of the research infrastructure and partnership network established over the past three years will ensure success of this interdisciplinary Center.
