NNews-Aug-2025

28 August 2025 Schools and Agencies Help Each Other with Intern Placement and Much More Education Council Builds Partnerships to Create Effective Internships and Increase Staff Retention Immediately after accepting the roles of Education Council Co-Chairs earlier this year, Strickler, Dr. Lewis andDr. DePonte Sernak decided to conduct a survey to identify the Council’s greatest areas of interest. Respondents identified the following top three priorities: Interface between community behavioral healthcare providers and institutions of higher education. Exploration of potential trainings to promote transition as needed, given the needs in response to changing governmental policies. Identifying cultural norms related to specific roles, languages, lifestyles, etc. that lead to staff shortages, professional development opportunities and hiring requirements. The first itemhas been the Education Council’s focus since it was created in the 1990s. However, back then, one of the primary objectives was to ensure that academic curricula alignedwithwhat was needed in actual practice in the behavioral healthcare field. Over the years, as the behavioral healthcare field has evolved and struggledwith a dwindlingworkforce, the Education Council refined its objectives while continuing to focus on the overarching goal of strengthening partnerships between institutions of higher education and behavioral healthcare organizations. continued from page 27 “We depend on behavioral healthcare agencies to provide practicums and internships for our students. It’s always been this way andwe know it’s a big ask. Interns can be assets to behavioral healthcare organizations, but it requires a lot of time on the part of behavioral healthcare staff to train andmentor the students,” Strickler said. “Without volunteer trainers and supervisors at agencies, we can’t do this,” she stressed. Collaboration between schools and providers are not only for placing interns. For example, sometimes, a student is not a good fit for an agency and problemsmay arise. “In these situations, the schoolsmediate to try to achieve successful outcomes,” Strickler said. Often, interns are offered permanent employment after they prove to be effective workers and fit well with the agencies. When they are hired, they have already completedmost of the training, whichmakes the transition to full-time work easier, compared to bringing in new staff fromoutside of the agencies. “Providers need to understand each student’s challenges and goals. We need tomake it a win-win,” Dr. Lewis emphasized. The Education Council fosters sharing of information and experiences, brainstorming and strategizing to achieve this purpose. continued on page 29