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This month's ARPA awardee profile features Nebraska Mental Health Centers (staff pictured right), which is based in Lincoln and has clinical sites in Beatrice and Wahoo. Below, Jill Zlomke McPherson, Clinical Director and CEO, tells us more about her team's project, which received support in the Behavioral Health Workforce COVID-19 Projects category.
Tell us about your project and what made you want to pursue it?
With this project, we sought to recruit new staff, retain current staff, and incentivize clinicians to travel to provide services in our rural clinics. The pandemic was a very uncertain time for all of us. But in the midst of so much uncertainty, something remarkable happened: our clinicians and administrative staff got together and formed a plan to continue services for our clients through telehealth and others means. Our team worked together to serve a community that needed our services more than ever, and also helped us all through a very difficult period.
When we saw this opportunity, we already knew we had a team that was ready, willing. and able to maintain and extend the reach of our services to more rural areas. This funding allowed us to reward that dedication in a way we were unable to previously, and thank them for their hard work. This also allows us to recruit, train and retain more team members to ease the overall burden on our staff, and strengthen our outreach efforts.
What do you find most exciting about the project?
I was excited about this project because it gave us the opportunity to reward and thank current staff for the work they do. Most of our clinicians reside in Lincoln and travel to our Beatrice or Wahoo clinics one or two days a week. Our clinicians have a heart for the areas they serve, but there is additional time and expense involved in traveling to those clinics. This funding allows us to provide them with additional compensation for that travel time and expense.
What do you see as the biggest barrier to success for the project?
COVID-19 had the unfortunate double effect of increasing the overall public need for mental health services and reducing our practice's ability to hire new personnel to fulfill that need. It is still more difficult now than in years past to recruit new providers, especially those interested in working in rural areas. Additionally, some clients appear to have tired of telehealth and desire to return to in-person sessions. This means we need to continue to maintain and increase our physical presence in rural communities.
What learnings have you gleaned from the project so far?
There is still such a need for services in the rural community, but it is difficult for providers to dedicate time to travel to these areas. Yet, telehealth is not always the best option. We need to look into additional ways to support rural communities and value our clinicians’ time.
Learn more about Nebraska Mental Health Centers here.
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