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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.
It’s also not a problem specific to Nebraska. As of December 2023, 169 million people across the country lived in a mental health professional shortage area.
The COVID-19 pandemic furthered those challenges, especially in rural areas, Doyle said.
“What we saw in the COVID-19 pandemic is that the demand for behavioral health services increased. We were seeing an increase in depression, anxiety, alcohol use,” Doyle said. “And so there were more people that were seeking behavioral health services on an already stressed system.”
The legislature started BHECN in 2009 to help recruit and retain behavioral health professionals in Nebraska and increase accessible education and training.
Although the $25.5 million has helped organizations address workforce challenges, Doyle said the biggest thing she hears is that the money still isn’t enough.
“You could double our funding and we still would not have enough to meet the need. So it really highlights that this work is important,” she said. “We are making an impact, but it just goes to show the degree of unmet need that still exists.”
The next three listening sessions for funding recipients are on June 18 at Chadron State College, Aug. 6 at Wayne State College and Aug. 7 at UNMC.