NJAMHAA-FY23-Annual-Report

37 NJAMHAA Annual Report FY 2023 NJMHI Augments NJAMHAA’s Efforts to Build the Behavioral Healthcare Workforce NJAMHAA established the New Jersey Mental Health Institute (NJMHI) in 2000 to augment efforts to break barriers (including cultural and linguistic obstacles) to accessing high-quality mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) services. Initiatives include training, technical assistance, research, and policy development. As the workforce crisis has been presenting particularly difficult challenges, in FY2023, NJMHI embraced the goal of expanding and strengthening the behavioral healthcare workforce to reinforce provider organizations’ staff retention and launched the Leadership Academy for Behavioral Healthcare Professionals in October 2022. The Leadership Academy presents opportunities for emerging leaders in the mental healthcare, SUD and intellectual/disabilities services fields to advance in their careers and succeed as future leaders. Individuals in all types of roles — clinical, administrative, information technology, legal, finance, human resources, etc. — are welcome and encouraged to participate as mentees, mentors (leaders in the behavioral healthcare field) and coaches (leaders in other industries whose different experiences, perspectives and expertise add to the value of the program). This year-long program is cost- effective ($950 per mentee at NJAMHAA member organizations, $3,000 for nonmembers) and contributes to behavioral healthcare organizations’ long- term sustainability, as well as quality and consistency of services, by increasing staff recruitment and retention.