Legislative Charge (SF1236)

1. Legislative Charge (SF1236) • The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MNSCU) will convene a summit involving the Department of Human Services, MNSCU, U of M, private colleges, mental health professionals, special education representatives, child and adult mental health advocates and providers, and community mental health centers. The purpose will be • to develop a comprehensive plan to increase the number of qualified people working at all levels of our mental health system, • ensure appropriate coursework and training and • create a more culturally diverse mental health workforce. • The plan must be submitted to the legislature by January 15, 2015.

2. RecommendationsIncrease Workforce • Produce more prescribers; lack of them is creating bottleneck • Bring mental health careers into the high school areas and develop apps that appeal to young people that describe these careers in a compelling way • Increase wages • Create tuition assistance programs for entry level mental health care workers in group homes who may want to return to school to move up career ladder • Expand loan forgiveness program to include 7 county area around Rochester (with proviso that graduates have to work in shortage area) • Increase capacity to educate and train advanced practice psychiatric nurses throughout the state

3. RecommendationsIncrease Workforce • More emphasis on “grow your own” for rural communities • Continuing education/training for physicians on triaging persons with mental illness to better utilize expertise • Funding for training grants • Decrease requirements for re-assessments to provide more time for care delivery • Expansion of ACT model • Increase utilization of Nurse Practitioners/Clinical Nurse Specialists • Develop and support debriefing opportunities to reduce burn-out • Reduce duplication (i.e., functional assessments)

4. Recommendations: Appropriate coursework & Training • Need to emphasize team approach in training at all levels • Need to develop fundamental/core courses that all educators have to take (similar to CPR) • Need to teach about various resources in the community that can be accessed for people needing mental health care (housing services, support groups, NAMI, etc.) that the community, not just the professional is part of recovery model • Ensure that professionals/practitioners are trained to work with MH/DD population in developing their recovery programs. • Inpatient clinical experience not as feasible anymore due to decrease of acute care beds. Need to look for alternative clinical experiences in the continuum of care like group homes • Review training and educational requirements for some mental health care job titles to determine if those continue to be appropriate • Explore credit for prior learning to expedite program completion

5. Recommendations: Appropriate coursework & Training • Offer increased continuing education opportunities in rural Minnesota • Supervision requirements are increasingly challenging given specialization (i.e., play therapy for children) • Develop additional LiCSWofferings • Develop interpreting programs to supply interpreters in languages other than Spanish • Critical thinking is great need in new graduates

6. Recommendations:Diversity • Develop mentoring programs for students of different cultures in mental health programs • Get into middle schools and early high school to promote mental health careers • Build relationships among respected leaders of cultural groups • Ensure that all panels of mental health care professionals/practitioners that address young people include people from different backgrounds • .

7. Recommendations:Diversity • Explore Community Health Worker role/program • Increase diversity within education programs • .