NJAMHAA FY23 Advocacy Campaign

New Jersey Residents Rely on Partners in Care to Thrive in All Aspects of their Lives Given the convergence of exceptional need and a staffing crisis, there must be exceptional investment in building and retaining a qualified behavioral health workforce. With various streams of funding provided in COVID relief packages, providers were able to offer sign-on and retention bonuses, tuition reimbursement and support for obtaining licensure. These strategies, while not an overall success in maintaining previous staffing levels, did help to offer some stability to the workforce. As we work toward fully adequate funding of programs that allow for competitive wages, new funding for these strategies is needed to help maintain the current workforce. Individuals of all ages throughout New Jersey rely on providers of mental healthcare, substance use treatment and many other clinical and support services to not only overcome behavioral health challenges, but also achieve many other goals that are necessary to experience a high quality of life. Everyone deserves opportunities to realize successes and have a bright future to strive for, as Lucia and the others featured here have been able to do. 7 H   Approximate Current Workforce of Social Workers (Behavioral Health) or Case Workers versus Optimal Workforce Behavioral HealthWorkforce Report, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. December 2020 55%