NNED Virtual Roundtable: Where Did Funding (And the Workforce) Go?

August 24, 2022 | 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm EDT

Volunteers handing out food and water at a community

Exploring Innovative Strategies for Sustainability and Retention in the Behavioral Health Field

Community-based organizations (CBOs) across the nation are experiencing challenges in sustaining programs and services, staff retention and training, and organizational capacity. With the COVID-19 emergency relief funding coming to an end this summer, many organizations are left wondering how to access long-term funding to continue to serve their communities’ increasing behavioral health needs. The pandemic prompted many CBOs to expand their services to address social determinants of health (SDOH) interrelated with behavioral health — including housing, food insecurity, and employment training — making them “one-stop shops” seeking new ways to tap into funding sources. Compounding these issues is the limited organizational capacity to continue to seek, apply for, and meet the deliverables of grants. As the nation witnesses the “great resignation” with a current quit rate of 3% (~4.6 million — nearly doubled since April 2020), organizations of all sizes are enduring the effects (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). CBO staff are experiencing high rates of burnout and limited support trying to keep up with the rise of behavioral health needs and filling in workforce gaps.

Join this NNED Virtual Roundtable to gain insight from federal agencies, CBOs, and behavioral health leaders around creative methods to sustain the work being done at the community level. Panelists will provide examples of success stories and discuss strategies for organizations to be able to continue their efforts long into the future.

During this NNED Virtual Roundtable, participants will learn:

Innovative ways to secure funding and address reporting and compliance needs
How to seek and/or create collaborative opportunities to increase organizational capacity
Approaches to growing and diversifying the behavioral health workforce
How to provide professional development and prevent overextending existing staff

The event was also shared on Facebook Live at fb.com/nned.net and closed captioning was available through Zoom.

View Resources and the Recording!

This NNED Virtual Roundtable is hosted by the NNED National Facilitation Center and SAMHSA’s Office of Behavioral Health Equity.

Opening Remarks

Lucas Peterson

Behavioral Health Consultant

Lucas Peterson is a healthcare professional and community organizer who is passionate about mental health/substance use parity, racial health equity, and health literacy. He has over 14 years of healthcare experience with roles ranging from direct care, health policy, business operations, program management, and community engagement. This includes working in group home settings, community inpatient and outpatient hospital, state government, state operated facilities, community health centers, and health plans. Currently, Lucas is a behavioral health consultant and a council member of the Cultural and Ethnic Communities Leadership Council (CECLC), a legislative mandated council charged with advising the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services on how to reduce disparities and make services they administer more racially equitable.

Panelists

Anne M. Heron, MS | Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Director of the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Affairs
SAMHSA

Anne M. Herron currently serves as the Director of the Office of Intergovernmental and Public Affairs at SAMHSA. The activities of the Office include policy liaison work in such areas as disaster and emergency management, tobacco and health, tribal affairs and policy, and International Global Health and territorial affairs. The policy innovation work encompasses such activities as workforce development and policy coordination of block grants, among others. In addition, the Office is responsible for the overall direction and management of SAMHSA’s 10 Regional Offices and the Office of Communication.

Patsy Cunningham, MA, NCC, LCPC | Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)

Behavioral Health Advisor, Office of Special Health Initiatives (OSHI)
Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)

Patsy Cunningham is a behavioral health advisor at HRSA in the Office of Special Health Initiatives. In this role, she provides advice and guidance to HRSA Senior Leadership on policy development and coordination for behavioral health issues that impact the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and HRSA. Patsy has over 14 years of experience in the behavioral health field. She previously served as a supervisory public health analyst for the Behavioral and Public Health branch in HRSA’s Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW). In BHW, she was responsible for developing behavioral and public health policies and programs that improve the health outcomes of underserved populations by increasing access to quality care, balancing the supply of providers and improving distribution of providers in areas with the highest need. Prior to joining HRSA, Patsy worked at Behavioral Health Systems Baltimore, Baltimore’s Local Behavioral Health Authority where she was a provider and consumer coordinator and then promoted to the manager of the Compliance Unit. Patsy holds a Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling and is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and a National Certified Counselor. Her clinical experience includes serving minors with a history of trauma, out of home placements and involvement in the Child Welfare System. She also has extensive experiencing serving adults who were experiencing homelessness, had a dual diagnosis and were involved with the criminal justice system.

Vattana Peong speaking into a microphone in front of a yellow background

Vattana Peong, MPH | The Cambodian Family Community Center

Executive Director
The Cambodian Family Community Center

Vattana Peong is the executive director of The Cambodian Family Community Center (TCF), a non-profit, community-based organization providing preventive health, mental health, youth development, resident leadership, civic engagement, citizenship, immigration, and cultural preservation programs and services to low-income children, immigrants, and refugees in Orange County, California since 1980. Vattana has had over 18 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations both in the United States and abroad and has been a strong advocate for health equity. For the past 6 years, Vattana has raised over $8 million in grant and contract funding and has increased TCF’s staff members from just 3 in 2015 to over 25 in 2022. He has created, directed, and implemented several projects and initiatives to increase understanding regarding the health and mental health disparities that ethnic community members have faced and to address the lack of culturally and linguistically competent health and mental health services and providers in the Cambodian and other underserved communities. Vattana served as the co-chair of the Cultural Competency Committee for County of Orange Health Care Agency’s Behavioral Health Services and a member of the State of California Cultural and Linguistic Competence Committee of the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. He currently serves as the community co-chair of Orange County Health Improvement Partnership and a member of the NNED Steering Committee, a diverse group of subject matter experts and persons with lived experience in the field of behavioral health. He has been appointed to the Hospital Community Board at Dignity Health – St. Mary Medical Center, helping guide long-term goals and policies for the hospital while making strategic plans. His advocacy and program works in highlighting health inequity issues and in reducing health disparities have been featured in several media outlets such as Los Angeles Times, Spectrum News 1, Orange County Register, Voice of OC, etc. Vattana was awarded the 2022 Asian Pacific Islander (API) Leadership Award through a California Senate Resolution authored by State Senator Tom Umberg and the 2018 Emerging Leader Award by the Orange County Grantmakers for his emerging leadership and continuing service to the community. He is also a recipient of Asian Pacific Islanders Outstanding Graduate Student Award and Kathryn T. McCarty Scholarship for Scholastic Achievement Award. He is bilingual and bicultural in English and Khmer (Cambodian) and has a Master’s Degree in Public Health from California State University, Fullerton.