Establishes a social worker pilot program

• Democratic5

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Samra Brouk says this is needed

A highly skilled and adequately sized workforce is complementary to and necessary for the success of the State's investments in increased behav- ioral health capacity. Most trained therapists who serve Medicaid popu- lations in the context of a Medicaid mental or behavioral health clinic are Licensed Social Workers who are typically expected to serve a patient panel of at least twenty clients that often have complex presen- tations that are a blend of medical, behavioral, and social needs. This is a daunting prospect that can discourage newly graduated social work- ers from taking positions at community-based agencies who serve under- served and vulnerable populations. Additionally, community-based agen- cies are competing for social workers with venture backed for-profit providers and the rapid growth of telehealth as a modality for mental health services has further incentivized practitioners to focus more on private practice serving commercially insured patients. One solution to stabilize community-based behavioral health services and address the workforce crisis is to create a postgraduate clinical train- ing program offering fellowships for Licensed Social Workers through a residency program. This initiative would not seek to establish new post- graduate training requirements that might limit the number of people eligible to provide care; rather, it would facilitate workforce growth by offering more advanced training opportunities and creating a pipeline of therapists who have experience providing therapy to complex popu- lations. This pilot program would fund only one day a week of training for residents while they perform Medicaid reimbursable counseling for the other four days of employment. The Jewish Board of Family and Chil- dren's services has a program model that has been successful and popular among its social workers. In comparison to behavioral health professionals, both the Federal government and the State support the training of medical professionals through various initiatives, including enhanced payments to hospitals and federally qualified health centers for graduate medical education (GME) and scholarship opportunities such as the Nurses for Our Future program and the Diversity in Medicine Scholarship program. GME funding alone for New York State is $1.9 billion. All social worker residency program participants would be given full time salaried opportunities with a placement in a clinical setting for social workers who are already licensed. As such, the program would offer a supportive pathway into clinical practice for recent graduates, practitioners transitioning between settings, and others who wish to develop competency in delivering care utilizing evidence-based practice models. Within this framework, the State has the opportunity to set parameters for social worker residency programs, including establishing measurable outcomes, setting standards for wages within the programs, and identify- ing areas of focus around the structure and content of the programs. A State-led establishment of postgraduate social work opportunities would help expand New York's long-term capacity and create a national model for investment into advancing behavioral health care, while providing additional support for an increasingly racially and ethnically diverse profession that is mostly comprised of women working with vulnerable populations. Social workers are crucial to the mental health crisis throughout New York State and provide a continuum of care especially required for complex cases. If effective, this pilot could be used as a scalable model to be replicated in hospitals or educational institutions of social work. LEGISATIVE HISTORY: 2024: S8597A Reported and committed to Finance.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.