This was originally posted on the DCHS Cultivating Connections Blog.
Supporting the well-being and mental health of our communities is a priority for King County. Even before the pandemic, community members were facing new challenges in accessing supports for mental health care. Since the pandemic, those challenges have deepened, especially for young people who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), LGBTQ+, and multilingual who have increasing mental health needs but a lack of culturally representative providers.
Among other areas of investments in behavioral health, King County is expanding funding in the workforce. The Crisis Care Centers Initiative invests in expanded licensed mental health care workers. In Best Starts for Kids, our teams are funding efforts to bring in more providers and healers who can offer culturally responsive supports: providers who are LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and multilingual.
How Best Starts for Kids is supporting the mental health workforce
The Community Well-Being Initiative, a program within Best Starts that is focused on promoting mental health and well-being for young people, is launching a $1.5 million funding opportunity this month to promote diversity in the workforce. This will fund about three different organizations in their efforts to bring more diverse providers, healers, and other youth wellness professionals into the provider workforce.
The workforce that contributes to a young person’s well-being goes beyond licensed counselors. King County is taking an expansive approach: to invest in providers who are meeting young people where they are with mental health resources that are relevant. This can include licensed counselors, but also cultural healers, energy workers, and other supportive adults advancing solutions that improve mental health and connect young people to mental health resources.
The funding opportunity was informed by focus groups with BIPOC and LGBTQ+ providers who expressed the barriers they faced with navigating the behavioral health system and their recommendations for actions that would address these barriers. The goals of this funding opportunity are focused in two areas: to see shifts in how youth can access services and to see an increase in diversity, equity, and retention within the behavioral health field and other fields that also impact youth well-being.
Intended outcomes:
- Increase access to youth well-being and mental health supports.
- Improve retention of a diverse workforce that supports youth mental health, especially for BIPOC and/or LGBTQ young people.
- Increase support for providers who reflect the experiences of young people seeking support.
How the Department of Community & Human Services is supporting the behavioral health workforce
The Crisis Care Centers Initiative is making investments to help stabilize, increase representation, and strengthen King County’s community behavioral health workforce.
Goals for Crisis Care Centers Initiative to support the workforce:
- Promote career pathways to access higher education, credentialing, training, and wraparound supports.
- Invest in apprenticeship programs – focused pathways include behavioral health technician, substance use disorder professional, and peer counselor.
- Reduce costs for workers – investing in a full range of benefits for workers, including fees or tuition associated with behavioral health training and certification.
- Increase wages and retain more representative people in community-based behavioral care.
- Peers – King County is making investments in peer-led programs because peers are an integral part of care, having the lived experience of someone they may support.
Upcoming Funding Opportunities
Best Starts for Kids/MIDD: Centering Diverse Healers in Youth Well-Being and Mental Health
Scheduled for Release in September.
Funding: $1,500,000
Description: This project seeks to fund organizations, groups, and entities with close ties to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) communities and will include outcomes such as increasing access to mental health resources and trainings, improving retention for youth serving organizations that support youth mental health, and increasing support for diverse providers who serve youth mental health.
Crisis Care Centers Initiative: BH Career Pathways Request for Proposals
[Editor’s note: this was updated to reflect the extended close date.]
Released August 12. Closing 2 pm October 16.
Funding: Approximately $11,500,000
This RFP released on August 12 will help stabilize King County’s KCICN/BHASO community behavioral health workforce from 2024-2026 by making investments that help cover the cost of professional fees, training programs, professional development, clinical supervisor expansion, and also support the wellbeing of workers through activities that promote physical, mental, and emotional health. At least 25 percent of funding will be used to increase the representativeness of community behavioral health workers within King County’s Integrated Care Network. For full RFP details and to apply, visit: www.zoomgrants.com/zgf/bhcp
