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Summer Webinar Series: Staff Recruitment and Retention

Published:
June 13, 2022
Northwest ATTC Summer Webinar Series:
Innovative and Successful Approaches to Staff Recruitment and Retention
July – September 2022

The mission of the ATTC Network—to accelerate adoption and implementation of useful treatment and recovery-oriented services—depends on having sufficient number and diversity of addiction workforce members to provide those services to persons in need of care for their substance use and related behavioral health issues.

Behavioral health services have been in high demand for years, due to a growing population, increasing need for care, and expanding insurance coverage and access. COVID-19 and ensuant increases in substance use and mental health symptoms have escalated this demand for services, placing additional burden on behavioral health organizations and the addiction workforce members they employ.

To meet these escalating demands, there is increasing need to attract talented individuals to careers as addiction treatment professionals. Similarly, there is great need to support and retain existing addiction treatment professionals who comprise the backbone of our healthcare system.

In response to these needs, the Northwest ATTC is hosting a 3-part summer webinar series on innovative and successful approaches to workforce recruitment and retention. Featured presenters will offer experienced perspectives concerning relevant state-level initiatives, successful efforts of behavioral health organizations that provide culturally-responsive services to underserved populations, and methods of applying organizational change and process improvement strategies to challenges of staff recruitment and retention

Tom BialozorPart I: Behavioral Health Workforce Support: Current State and Future Opportunities
Thomas Bialozor, MSW, LCSW, EMBA (Director of Behavioral Health, Care Oregon)
July 27, 2022 | 12-1pm PT

In this session, Thomas Bialozor, MSW, LCSW, EMBA, Director of Behavioral Health at Care Oregon, will describe trends related to recent challenges facing the behavioral health workforce, including the COVID-19 pandemic, dynamics of the working environment, labor market challenges, and associated data. He’ll also talk about different opportunities for interventions to address the behavioral health workforce crisis at the state/funder, program/organizational, and individual levels. Participants will leave this session able to synthesize relevant recommendations and apply their own ideas for supporting the behavioral health workforce with practical applications for action.

Recording and slides available here.

Fernando Pena and Jerrod MurrayPart II: Recruitment and Retention Strategies for Culturally Specific Behavioral Health Staff
Fernando Peña (Executive Director of NW Instituto Latino), Jerrod Murray (Painted Horse Recovery)
August 31, 2022 | 12pm-1:30pm PT (note: this session is 90 minutes instead of our usual 60) 

The current behavioral health workforce emergency is nothing new in the culturally and linguistically specific communities in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Traditional recruitment strategies by dominant culture organizations often fail due to a variety of systemic and cultural barriers that are largely invisible to the established behavioral health systems. Executive Directors Fernando Peña with NW Instituto Latino and Jerrod Murray with Painted Horse Recovery operate culturally specific SUD Recovery Community Organizations that despite the ongoing behavioral health workforce emergency are fully staffed with culturally and linguistically specific staff and routinely have multiple applicants for each open position as one becomes available. In this session, Jerrod and Fernando will share their understanding of the systemic barriers that impact Indigenous and Latinx communities when it comes to the behavioral health workforce. And will share some strategies that they have used to recruit, retain and support their respective teams.

Recording available here. (Note: Jerrod Murray was unable to attend this session)
 

Mat RoosaPart III: Find, Hire, & Keep: Applying NIATx Process Improvement Tools and Principles to Create Staffing Solutions
Mat Roosa, LCSW-R (Founding member of NIATx and consultant)
September 28, 2022 | 12pm-1pm PT

All human service systems are struggling to recruit, hire and retain the staffing that they need to provide quality care. And most of these systems respond to this struggle by spending ever increasing resources with ever diminishing returns. The application of process improvement tools and principles to the hiring process can help organizations to rethink hiring and achieve results. The NIATx rapid cycle PDSA process improvement model has had a huge impact on the quality improvement efforts of substance use and mental health services throughout the county. Join NIATx founding member Mat Roosa, LCSW-R, to learn how to use these powerful tools to understand the hiring process, and make data driven improvements that yield measurable results.  

Recording and slides available here.
 

Innovative and Successful Approaches to Staff Recruitment and Retention, July - September 2022, Northwest ATTC
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