Mid Valley Behavioral Health Consortium April Update

April 18, 2024

Spring is moving along, and much has been happening since our last General Meeting. Here’s a recap in case you were unable to attend the workgroup meetings this week.

Bright Spots:

The Consortium’s work was featured at Oregon’s Workforce Talent & Development Board Executive Council April 15th. Members were especially interested in the themes and areas discussed at our recent Refresh meeting in April around “What’s working” and “What isn’t”. Many of the themes brought forward resonated and were consistent with what others have found in this sector as well as other sectors. (https://www.oregon.gov/workforceboard/pages/home.aspx)
“Faces of Health” videos have been completed! We are awaiting a few final technical edits from the team at Millennial Reach Agency before they will be ready to share with membership partners. Thank you to Chemeketa Community College for their funding and Katie Castillo (CCC) for recruiting people and sites. When we need extra help with this, Carrie Norris (Samaritan Health) and Krista Lovaas (WVP Health Authority) came to bat. Finally, the project would not have been made possible without additional funding from Willamette Health Council.
Yamhill Community Care has partnered with WWP to set up a stipend program to support students training in Yamhill County. “Workforce Supports for Yamhill County Clinicians’ will be taking applications soon for the 2024-2025 year. Thank you, Sheryl Fisher (YCCO), for moving this forward in the region. Now two out of four counties have stipend supports for future clinicians.
Chemeketa Community College will be offering a cohort CADC training for licensed clinicians in the area seeking CADC certification to better serve clients that have co-occurring disorders. If you employ LCSW/LPC interested in this training, please reach out to Shaunah Steele (CCC) as they begin identifying those interested in the cohort. Training would occur later this year.
LBCC will host a Regional Healthcare Career Fair May 10, 2024, at the main Albany Campus. If you are an area employer interested in taking part in the fair, please use this registration link. Thank you, Deron Fort (LBCC) and your sponsors, for all the work committed to bringing this forward for area students.

Workgroup Updates:

Both the Education & Career Pathway Workgroup and Retention & Recruitment Workgroup met this week. Please see the attached notes for summaries of the meetings. Calendar invites have gone out for the May workgroup meetings so please RSVP at your convenience. May work will include finalizing 2024-2025 action items supporting the Consortium’s objectives.

Education & Career Pathway Workgroup Meeting Notes

Retention & Recruitment Workgroup Meeting Notes

Coming soon…..Behavioral Health Training Grants

WWP is in the final stages of completing the application link to training grants for employers aimed at supporting staff trainings. How the application process works and what it can do to support your staff will be featured at the General Consortium Meeting May 15, 8:30-10:00am. There are prioritized trainings around diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and these will help support organizations in efforts to recruit and retain talented staff.

If you have bright spots to share, job postings, additional partners you would like to include in the consortium please let me know. This is a dynamic region to care for Oregonians.