STAR² Center Talks Workforce Success

This season of the STAR² Center Talks Workforce Success explores a variety of approaches health centers can take to support mental health professions pathways. Tune in to hear from Susan Boyles, Director of Behavioral Health at Adelante Healthcare, as she shares ideas on how to effectively engage health center staff and the broader community to identify innovative ways to support the recruitment and integration of the mental health workforce into community health centers. 

Supportive partnerships are essential to the "grow your own" approach to workforce development programs. In this episode, Meadow Hazelhoff, Director of Behavioral Health and Special Populations at the Oklahoma Primary Care Association, explains how strategic investments in partnerships and internal processes can help to support the recruitment, retention, and effective integration of the mental health workforce into community health centers. 

In this episode of the STAR² Center Talks Workforce Success, Emily Bennett, Behavioral Health Program Manager from the Association of Utah Community Health, shares an innovative model to meet the increased demand for behavioral health providers by partnering with local universities to support early career mental health providers to pursue work at community health centers. 

Supportive partnerships are essential to the "grow your own" approach to workforce development through Health Professions Education and Training (HP-ET) programs. In this episode of the STAR² Center Talks Workforce Success podcast, Amy Weinstein of Thundermist Health Center explains how cultivating a variety of partnerships at the local, state, and national level supports Thundermist's array of HP-ET programming to prepare prospective members of the workforce and support their current employees in their personal and professional goals. Amy also shares how these partnerships have helped to prepare Thundermist to bring additional programming in-house in the coming years as an official teaching health center.

The "grow your own" approach to workforce development is gaining traction at health centers across the country. As workforce teams design and implement the health professions education and training (HP-ET) programs that best serve their communities, it is helpful to hear from individuals who have followed the HP-ET pathway in their own careers. This episode features a conversation with Robyn Weiss, Director of Workforce Development at the Northwest Regional Primary Care Association (NWRPCA), and Dr. Martin Peters, Regional Director of Medical Education and Clinical Assistant Professor at A.T. Still University, who has firsthand experience as a participant in and now champion of health center HP-ET programs.

The fifth season of the STAR² Center Talks Workforce Success podcast highlights Primary Care Organizations (PCAs), Community Health Centers (CHCs), and National Training and Technical Assistant Partners (NTTAPs) who successfully used, disseminated, and/or implemented practices, strategies, tools, and more gathered from the STAR² Center's training opportunities, technical assistance, or original resources. In this episode, Michelle Fernández Gabilondo is joined by Malulani Eccleshall, Human Resources Director at Waimānalo Health Center. Malulani shares the health center's unique approach to recruitment and retention and the successful implementation of strategies learned at a recent STAR² Center workshop to enhance their team cohesion and connection with the local community. Learn more about the Waimānalo Health Center Cultural Health and Waimānalo Community.