Stacy Wegley

Enhancing the Capacity of the Mental Health and Addiction Workforce: A Framework

The impacts of trauma, violence, and addiction on human life are far reaching. This new resource begins to unpack two of the pivotal moves for changing course identified in the Springboard.

Transform the mental health workforce
Change delivery of mental health care

Reconceptualize the Workforce

Now is the time to solve the growing behavioral health needs in our country.

This resource focuses on laying out the proposed framework and policy considerations that can reconceptualize workforce to enhance the overall capacity of our clinics and our communities in addressing mental health. Central to any meaningful redesign of the health care is a discussion of our workforce. Who is doing what, to whom, where, and at what cost?

This goal of this paper is to provide a framework for the mental health and addiction workforce in the United States. It proposes three shifts that need to take place at the clinical, community, and individual levels to adopt the proposed framework and achieve our goal of population health.

Authors: Benjamin F. Miller, Psy.D., Anita Burgos, Ph.D.

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Learn more about the Scattergood Foundation and see more of Think Bigger Do Good Policy Series papers.

Enhancing Equity to Improve Community Resilience

Resilience is greater in communities that are thriving, and not just for the few, but for the many.

This means improving equity, a quality that is perniciously elusive and is not created without clear intent and action. Too many cities have focused on improving economic, health, and social outcomes, only to see some populations fall further behind. Yet this reality is not happenstance, as in the words of W. Edwards Deming: “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”

Authors: Doug Linkhart and Tyler Norris for the International City Managers Association (ICMA)

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Thriving Together Partners

Explore the National Civic Review: Winter Edition 2021

This special issue of the National Civic Review is devoted to exploring emerging pathways for American renewal: Civic Life, Economic Life, and Social, Emotional, & Spiritual Life

Paths to Renewal

“Entering 2021, America finds itself in a liminal space: in between the once familiar and the unknown, between what has been and what could be. The compounding crises of 2020 have irrevocably changed our country—how we socialize, work, learn, use technology, consume media, confront racism, practice politics, and more. It has changed how we view each other and how we experience our immense interdependence.”

Thriving Together Partners

Office of the Surgeon General: Community Health & Economic Prosperity

In order to improve the health of Americans and help foster a more sustainable and equitable prosperity, the Office of the Surgeon General is implementing an initiative called Community Health and Economic Prosperity (CHEP).

The Vital Conditions and WIN Measures are fully integrated into the report, with members and organizations in the WIN Network as contributing authors.

Businesses as Stewards for Thriving Together

The health of Americans is not as good as it could be, despite large expenditures on healthcare. Our poorer health status creates costs and challenges for individuals, families, communities, and businesses, and can be a drag on the economy, as too many jobs remain unfilled and productivity is adversely affected. Many of our poor health problems are rooted in inadequate investments in prevention and unequal economic opportunities in our communities. CHEP affirms our need for;

Engaging businesses to be community change-makers and forces for health in their communities
Implementing solutions to help improve and sustain the health of communities, such as comprehensive smoke-free policies and affordable housing
Strengthening communities to be places of opportunity for health and prosperity for all

CHEP joins other efforts in communities and across the nation, all striving to improve health and increase opportunity for all. What ties these together, in addition to a focus on health and economic opportunity, is a recognition that health happens in communities and is tied to conditions in communities, such as the quality and availability of housing, education, and jobs. What sets CHEP apart is the focus on businesses and the private sector as critical agents of change to improve the conditions in communities and improve their own bottom lines.

Thriving Together Partners

Healthy Neighborhood Investments: A Policy Scan & Strategy Map

The Policy Scan uses the Thriving Together Springboard for Equitable Recovery and Resilience as a fundamental framework. A 38-member Policy Council convened to advise the scan and prioritized belonging and civic muscle as key to achieving our collective goals.

It Takes a Village

The Build Healthy Places Network‘s Healthy Neighborhood Investments: A Policy Scan & Strategy Map, created in partnership with Shift Health Accelerator and support provided by the Blue Shield of California Foundation.

The Policy Scan:

identifies several federal, state, and local policy actions for advancing health and racial equity through cross-sector investments;
organizes them using the seven vital conditions in the Thriving Together Springboard for Equitable Recovery and Resilience; and
serves as a tool for community-owned priority setting that reduces inequities and strengthens neighborhood revitalization, with a geographic emphasis on California.

The Policy Scan is a recognition that collaborations of community, health, community development, and local government are trying to clear the same historical and current policy hurdles in pursuit of aligned goals. Community leaders have understood these connections exist, but systematic, structural, and policy barriers have stood in the way of better health for all. This is especially true for BIPOC and other marginalized and disinvested communities. And now it is imperative to advance anti-racism in American laws, policies, and regulations to create community-level conditions that support health and opportunity for everyone.