The Behavioral Health Workforce Development service category addresses the shortage of qualified individuals who provide services in San Francisco’s public mental health system. This includes developing and maintaining a culturally humble and culturally competent workforce that includes individuals with client and family member experience who are capable of providing client- and family-driven services that promote wellness, recovery, and resiliency. This service category includes 1) the Mental Health Career Pathways Program, 2) Training and Technical Assistance, 3) Residency and Internship Programs, and 4) (state-funded) Financial Incentive Programs

Mental Health Career Pathway Programs

The Mental Health Career Pathways Program focuses on developing a workforce pipeline that will usher in the next generation of mental health and behavioral health practitioners and include members of underserved and underrepresented communities.

Lead Agency	Program	Services
Richmond Area Multi-Services, Inc. (RAMS)	Summer Bridge	Teaches high school students about behavioral health fields and encourages them to explore their interests in behavioral health careers
City College of San Francisco	Community Mental Health Worker Certificate (CMHC)	Trains a diverse group of frontline health workers to provide culturally responsive mental health and recovery services to clients. This 16-unit program is based on the mental health wellness and recovery model that is focused on the process of recovery through consumer-directed goal setting and collaboration between consumers and providers.
California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS)	CIIS MHSA Project	Expands student support services within CIIS’s School of Professional Psychology (SPP) program to increase recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented groups through a variety of activities (e.g., trainings, individualized educational plans, workshops on time management, referrals)
Public Health Institute	Faces for the Future Program	The program introduces John O’Connell High School students to career pathways in healthcare, public health and mental and behavioral health while supporting them with academic interventions, coordination of wellness services, referrals to outside agencies when needed and youth leadership development opportunities.

Training and Technical Assistance

The MHSA supports staff trainings on topics such as wellness and recovery, family support, intensive case management, and the integration of primary care and mental health services. Mental health service consultation is also provided. Consultation focuses on recovery-based methods and emphasizes the inclusion of individuals in implementing organizational and service provision change.

Lead Agency	Trainings	Focus
SF Department of Public Health (SF DPH)	Wellness Management and Recovery Program (WMR)	A renamed modality (Illness, Management and Recovery - IMR) to help those who have experienced psychiatric symptoms develop personalized strategies for managing their wellness.
SF Department of Public Health (SF DPH)	Trauma Informed Systems Initiative (TIS)	Initiative focuses on the system-wide training of a workforce that will develop a foundational understanding and shared language, and that can begin to transform the system from one that asks “What is wrong with you?” to one that asks “What happened to you?.” The initiative strives to develop a new lens with which to see interactions that reflect an understanding of how trauma is experienced in both shared and unique ways.
Adolescent Health Working Group	Adolescent health issues	To conduct community research, public policy, advocacy, and trainings in order to advance the health and well-being of youth and young adults in San Francisco
City College of San Francisco	Medicinal Drumming Apprenticeship Pilot Project	To provide a forum for communities to explore their traditional healing ways and support them in reintegrating these into their praxis
SF Department of Public Health (SF DPH)	Street Violence Intervention and Prevention (SVIP) Program	The nine-month Professional Development Academy builds upon the existing skills and talents of San Francisco’s brave and courageous street outreach workers/crisis responders and educates them in the areas of community mental health, trauma, vicarious trauma and trauma recovery within the frameworks of cultural sensitivity, responsiveness and humility.

Residency and Internship Programs

In order to address San Francisco’s behavioral health workforce shortages and supplement its existing workforce, the MHSA funds psychiatric residency and internship programs leading to licensure.

Lead Agency

Program

Focus

San Francisco
Department of Public Health

Fellowship Program for
Public Psychiatry in the
Adult System of Care

To further develop fellows’ knowledge and skills in behavioral health research (e.g., smoking cessation for Asians, health care utilization by LGBTQ individuals) and services for adults diagnosed with severe mental illness.

UCSF

UCSF Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital

To train the next generation of public mental health care leaders who will provide patient-centered care to vulnerable populations with severe mental illness through: 1) understanding and implementing relevant, evidence-based psychosocial rehabilitation and psychopharmacological treatments, 2) promoting recovery, and 3) developing rewarding public-academic partnerships to examine their work.

Financial Incentive Programs

Statewide MHSA funding supports stipends, scholarships, and loan forgiveness programs that serve as financial incentives to recruit and retain both prospective and current mental health employees. The Mental Health Loan Assumption Program (MHLAP) is one resource that encourages mental health providers to practice in underserved locations in California by authorizing a plan for repayment of some or all of their educational loans in exchange for their service in a designated hard-to-fill/retain position in the public mental health system.