MDCC Partners with Local Organizations to Diversify Behavioral Health Workforce

Diversifying the Behavioral Health Workforce Project

Maria Droste Counseling Center, La Cocina, Envision:You, and Jacquelyn D. Stanton Consulting have partnered to create the Diversifying the Behavioral Health Workforce Project. This project will develop a multi-year plan to grow and sustain a diverse behavioral health professional provider pool by removing barriers and improving systems to recruit, train, and support the next generation.

In order to develop this project, the organizations met with focus groups and conducted surveys involving more than sixty groups in Colorado. Those groups represented diverse cultural and spiritual groups, as well as a diversity of identities. The goal was to hear from those who are historically marginalized or underrepresented in order to understand their experiences with behavioral health and develop actionable steps in moving forward.

This project, sponsored by Colorado Access and the Rose Community Foundation, seeks to make behavioral health services more visible and accessible by outlining a strategic plan and inviting critical partners to join in realizing it. Jessica Manzanillo, Diversifying Project Coordinator at Maria Droste Counseling Center, comments that she “hopes this initiative will continue to pave a path for equity and inclusion.” The plan aims to improve access to care by recruiting a pool of providers that better represents the diverse communities of Colorado and by subsidizing the high cost of care. The plan also calls for a focus on removing barriers to pursuing a career in behavioral health, beginning with educational institutions and moving through licensure and providers’ career development and leadership opportunities. It will work to revise recruitment processes and curriculum to better represent marginalized groups, and to redesign mentorship models.

According to the Colorado Health Institute’s 2021 Health Access Survey, more Coloradans reported poor mental health in 2021 than ever before, nearly a quarter of the population. Younger Coloradans, LGBTQ+ adults, and lower-income individuals struggled the most, while racial and ethnic minorities were more concerned than white individuals about receiving unfair treatment when seeking care. This project works to provide those Coloradans most in need with the treatment they need by creating a more diverse and representative behavioral health workforce.

About the Organizations:

Maria Droste Counseling Center is a Denver-based nonprofit mental health service organization comprised of mental health professionals, learners and volunteers who are passionate about community, learning, and service. La Cocina is a group of trained psychologists, counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, mentors, educators, and health promotion workers who facilitate mental health recovery for immigrant families. Envision:You is the only statewide organization focused solely on improving behavioral health outcomes for Colorado’s LGBTQ+ community living with mental health and substance use disorders. Jacquelyn D. Stanton Consulting provides services in the areas of equity, diversity, and inclusion in health, behavioral health and higher education, disability services.

For questions about the Diversifying the Behavioral Health Workforce Project, please email Diversifying@MariaDroste.org.

For immediate release. Written by Kevin Brown for Maria Droste Counseling Center.