LANSING, MI
-- The National Association
of Social Workers Michigan Chapter (NASW-Michigan) has been awarded a two-year,
$310,000 behavioral health workforce development grant by the Michigan Health
Endowment Fund. NASW Michigan’s project is intended to address a significant
workforce shortage in the substance use and co-occurring mental health field.
The project
will bolster the number of culturally competent and highly skilled social workers
in Michigan by offering new supervision training with a focus on substance use treatment.
The ultimate goal is to ensure that social workers are better equipped to
respond to and assist with the demands that children, teens, young adults and
their families face around substance use and co-occurring mental health
disorders.
Clinical
social workers are one of the nation’s largest groups of providers of mental
health services, including substance use treatment. Using the grant to bolster
this workforce will help Michigan address its opioid addiction crisis. There
were 2,729 deaths from drug overdoses in the state in 2017, more than from car
accidents, according to Michigan state government data.
The behavioral health workforce development project was made possible
through the collaborative approach of NASW-Michigan Executive Director Maxine
Thome, PhD, LMSW, ACSW, MPH; Board Member Ronnie Tyson, LMSW; Director of
Public Policy Algeria Wilson, MSW; chapter staff, and social work experts from across
the state.
“NASW-Michigan is excited to take a lead in creating a strong social
work workforce to address the growing substance use problem across our state
and nation,” Thome said. “We recognize
the critical need for supervision training in Michigan, and the barriers that
exist for individuals with unmet substance use and co-occurring mental health
needs.”
“This grant will help us tackle this issue from both clinical and
macro perspectives, and we were able to put forth a vision, inclusive of
various key organizations, to address barriers to the profession of social
work,“ she said.
NASW-Michigan
looks forward to working with The Michigan Health Endowment Fund and key
statewide organizations over the next two years to effectively improve the
social workers knowledge around this critical topic.