4C Health commits to Behavioral Health Workforce Playbook

Strategies seek to bolster behavioral health workforce development, recruitment and retention

The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research & Policy recently released the Playbook for Enhancing Indiana’s Mental & Behavioral Health Workforce. The playbook outlines recommended strategies or “plays” that can be undertaken to bolster behavioral health workforce development, recruitment and retention.
In order to bring the Playbook from vision to reality it requires that all players in the Hoosier state consider what part they can contribute to moving the ball down the field and into the end zone. It requires those that will champion “plays.”
"There are times in life when you might take a wait and see approach. That is not today. And that is certainly not what will make the Hoosier State #1 in class for behavioral health workforce development. It takes every level, every entity, every person to find what they can do to build, recruit, retain and reconnect the workforce dots," 4C Health CEO Dr. Carrie Cadwell said. "4C Health is beyond pleased to commit at our local, regional, and state level to see the Playbook move from vision to reality. We hope this letter of commitment, a pledge really that we intend to see through, spurs others to do the same so we might achieve our goals in workforce collectively and in an accelerated fashion."
4C Health is a North Central Indiana certified Community Mental Health Center, Psychiatric Inpatient Hospital, Crisis Stabilization Unit, Mobile Crisis and Primary Care provider. 4C Health is also one of eight pilot organizations for Indiana’s Certified Community Behavioral Health Center Demonstration. It serves more than 9,000 individuals across 14 counties annually with a workforce of over 420 individuals. 
The need in rural communities is so great and the critical factor in its ability to meet that need is workforce. As such, 4C Health commits to achieving the following plays below in alignment with the Playbook’s outlined strategies:
• Increasing the minimum number of behavioral health students trained (practicums, clinicals, internships across all disciplines) at 4C Health to 50 annually.
• Expanding the Peer Workforce from 12 to 30 peers employed by 4C Health.
• Expanding the existing Masters Practicum/Internship Program to up to 15 slots annually.
• Ensuring the 4C Health Master’s training programs are stipend or paid programs for students.
• Moving the Associate/Bachelors shadowing program to a no slot limit annually.
• Implementing a Doctoral Psychology Practicum program in fall of 2024, with six slots available annually at 4C Health.
• Developing an APA-approved psychology internship and post-doctoral program overseen by 4C Health.
• Collaborating with a local community college to develop a paraprofessional/case manager pathway/registered apprenticeship.
• Implementing a competency-based model for supervision of clinical supervisors.
• Bolstering existing 4C Health policy around the requirements and benchmarks for who can become a clinical supervisor at 4C Health and the continuing education expectations around supervision practice for those individuals.
• Collaborating with surrounding Master’s level higher education programs about opportunities to partner as our communities in North Central Indiana fall in a “training desert.”
• Continuing and expanding the 4C Health Ivy Tech student scholarship for the Kokomo Region to promote and support those students choosing a human services degree.
• Continuing self-funded 4C Health Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and Loan Repayment Program (LRP) for existing workforce, seeking to further their behavioral health related education and career.
• Developing a pre-med college student psychiatric shadowing program and a psychiatric nurse shadowing program for students considering nursing as a profession.
• Collaborating with local residency programs to provide the ability for all developing physicians committed to rural practice in our region to receive psychiatric practice experience so as to behaviorally enhance their chosen medical practice.
• Knowing that 4C Health has staff embedded in over 43 schools corporations and over 180 school buildings, seeking to collaborate with existing school partners on opportunities for middle school education/exposure on behavioral health professions and pathways.
• To be market-leading in competitive wages and affordable benefits for all behavioral health workforce under a 4-day work week model.
• And, finally, as a state and national leader in the practice of 4-day work week (i.e. working 32 hours but being paid for 40), 4C Health will eliminate
the 40-hour work week for the health and well-being of its staff.
Some of these are implementable more immediately and others will take time. Some of these 4C Health can do on its own and others will require the development of partnerships within the communities it serves.
"I am super appreciative to Hannah Maxey and Mykayla Tobin from the Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research & Policy for their openness to receive these commitments. And for tolerating my giddy excitement over 4C Health “championing” the Playbook," Cadwell said.