By Mica Kanner-Mascolo, WBJ Staff Writer
Reprinted with Permission from Worcester Business Journal | September 16, 2024 

A career support program developed by two leading Central Mass. nonprofits is boosting BIPOC representation in the mental health field.

As the U.S. faces an ongoing workforce shortage among behavioral health providers, one Worcester program is working to open pathways for immigrant and refugee BIPOC looking to enter the human services and behavioral health workforce.

The Human Services Career Support Program, a collaborative initiative between Open Sky Community Services and Seven Hills Foundation, is a five-month, paid training program offering participants guaranteed employment at one of the two Worcester human service nonprofits upon graduation.

On its fifth cohort since its inception in 2022, the HSCS program provides classroom training and internship rotations to prepare its immigrant and refugee participants, who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), for entry-level, direct support roles, namely residential counselors or activity specialists.

The program is part of Open Sky’s effort to address the organization’s workforce shortage and boost diversity among mental health providers in the community, especially among clinicians, said Lorie Martiska, executive vice president, chief advancement officer at Open Sky.

The issues of mental health workforce compression and lack of diversity are felt on both the state and national levels. The Center For Health Information and Analysis reports 78% of independently licensed clinicians in Massachusetts identify as white and independently licensed clinicians had the highest vacancy rate among behavioral health organizations surveyed at 28.5%.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration says 122 million people in the United States live in a mental health professional shortage area as of Sept. 4.

“This program is absolutely transformative for the participants, but I would say it’s also transformative for us as employers,” said Martiska.

Learning the ins and outs Participants begin the program with three weeks of classroom training before entering into the first of three rotations, each separated by two weeks of classroom training. The rotations begin with shadowing staff members and advance to participants providing supervised direct care to clients. Afterward, students spend the final week of the program completing a capstone project, benefits applications, job placement, and graduation plans.

Classroom curriculum covers a holistic range of subjects needed for on-the-job duties including hands-on medical training, English courses, and lessons on professional boundaries, image, microaggressions, and understanding developmental disabilities. During their rotations, participants shadow and assist with a wide range of responsibilities, including supporting clients through community integration, money management skills, and with activities of daily living such as eating, dressing, and bathing.

Going through the HSCS program offers participants not only the ability to deliver care, but it provides a space for students to flourish on a personal level, said Tashiani Forman, Seven Hills career support and advancement navigator.

“[From] when we first meet them, to the last day when we graduate, you see a complete difference in them, personally and professionally,” she said.

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