This month's ARPA awardee profile features Restore Rebuild Reconnect Counseling Centers (R3CC) in Omaha. LaRhonda Flowers, PhD, owner and founder of R3CC (left), and Christy Wissink, MA, LIMHP, R3CC's chief operating officer (right), tell us more about their team's projects, which received support in the Behavioral Health Training and Education Opportunities, Behavioral Health Workforce COVID-19 Projects, and Funding for Supervision of Provisionally Licensed Providers categories.
Tell us about your projects and what made you want to pursue them?
Our supervision project provides stipends for supervisors who mentor provisionally licensed clinicians. Our practice focuses on a unique, high-risk community in Omaha and its surrounding areas. When we applied for the grant, we were overwhelmed by a surge in appointment requests that far outpaced our available scheduling. By securing this support, we were able to grow our team by bringing in more clinicians, which significantly improved our capacity to meet the needs of our community. This initiative ensures that supervisors receive compensation for their important work in guiding provisional clinicians through the credentialing process.
Our behavioral health training initiative offers an internship program specifically designed for master's level clinicians. This project includes stipends for both interns and their supervisors within the organization. Recognizing the heightened demand for quality hands-on experiences when working with high-risk populations, we established this internship opportunity to enable master's level clinicians to gain valuable experience with individuals post-incarceration, clients with co-occurring disorders, and those from marginalized communities. Additionally, we understand the critical importance of compensating our interns; prior to securing this grant, we lacked the resources to provide such support.
Our behavioral health workforce project aims to develop online training programs and educational resources for individuals affected by COVID-19. We pursued this grant with the understanding, as clinicians, of the importance of online resources created by peers who have experienced the challenges of the pandemic firsthand. Our goal is to share our unique insights gained from working with high-risk populations and to address strategies for alleviating burnout among professionals in the field.
What do you find most exciting about your projects?
The most rewarding aspect of the provisional stipend project has been the opportunity to expand our reach both within the community and statewide. By providing stipends to our supervisors, we’ve been able to grow our team, bringing on additional staff and therapists to enhance our capacity to serve clients through in-person sessions and telehealth. Thanks to this grant, we’ve relocated to a new office space three times larger than our previous location. This expansion has enabled us to introduce co-occurring intensive outpatient program groups and specialized groups for marginalized populations, as well as establish a spacious training room. In the coming year, this training space will be instrumental in hosting in-person workshops for clinicians eager to work with high-risk populations.
The most exciting aspect of the training grant has been the opportunity to collaborate with colleges across Nebraska to train more masters-level interns to serve formerly incarcerated individuals, those on federal probation, and other marginalized populations. This grant has allowed us to guide interns as they engage with clients whose experiences often differ greatly from their own. It has been a privilege to support them as they navigate doubts, confront biases, and work through the insecurities that come with being a new clinician. We have truly enjoyed helping them discover their niche, ignite their passion for helping others, and grow in confidence as they develop their professional identities.
One of the most exciting aspects of the workforce project has been the opportunity to think creatively about educational materials. Through our surveys, we’ve learned that clinicians and individuals often struggle to find time for lengthy training sessions. In response, we are focusing on developing diverse and accessible online training and educational resources. Our goal is to create content that supports reducing burnout and compassion fatigue, rather than contributing to it by overwhelming individuals with excessive information or lengthy videos. To achieve this, we are designing a variety of materials tailored to meet different needs and learning preferences.
What do you see as the biggest barrier to success for the projects?
The most significant challenge with the provisional stipend project has been navigating the hiring and onboarding process for clinicians. Given the complex needs of our clientele, it is essential to find professionals who align with our practice's mission and approach. Identifying candidates who are skilled and good fits for our organization can be a sometimes challenging process.
One barrier we have encountered with interns in our training project is the difficulty in balancing their academic schedules with our evening group sessions. Additionally, a significant challenge has been identifying interns who are genuinely interested in and capable of working with more complex and challenging populations. During the interview process, it has become clear that some candidates are not aligned with the demands and focus of our practice, making our site a less suitable fit for their internship experience.
A challenge we have encountered with our workforce project is navigating the technology learning curve involved in making these educational materials accessible online. We are currently in the final stages of developing the section of our website dedicated to hosting and delivering this content in an easy-to-use format.
What learnings have you gleaned from the projects so far?
The supervision space is crucial for provisional clinicians stepping into the behavioral health field. The experiences and guidance provided during this early phase of their career can significantly shape their professional journey. It is an honor to support these emerging clinicians as they take their first steps in this rewarding profession. Our goal is to equip them with the tools and confidence needed to thrive long-term in the people-helping field.
Similar to the supervision stipend, we have learned how vital the internship experience is for those learning and entering the behavioral workforce field. The internship site really sets the tone for the individual entering the field. This has been a wonderful experience to walk alongside new clinicians in the field. We want to be able to set them up for success long term within this people-helping field.
In terms of our workforce project, we have learned there is not a one size fits all approach to creating material and training to help clinicians. After seeing the survey results, we pivoted a little to create more synthesized and bite-size materials. This has been also helpful in making sure we are actually providing helpful materials to the behavioral workforce.
Learn more about R3CC here.
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