INDIANAPOLIS — The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy, a unique organization housed within the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine with the mission of finding state solutions to health workforce issues, has been awarded a $592,338 grant to create recommendations for strengthening behavioral health and substance use workers.
The competitive grant was one of four awarded in March by the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE). The Bowen Center will conduct a 50-state policy review and extensive state and national stakeholder engagement to create a first-of-its-kind model. This will include recommendations for streamlined education, regulations and reimbursement strategies for behavioral health paraprofessional roles.
"This framework aims to address the critical gap in service access for individuals suffering from opioid use disorder by recommending best practices for training, credentialing and reimbursement based on lessons learned from states with formalized roles," Bowen Center Director Hannah L. Maxey, PhD, MPH, RDH, said.
Some states are currently developing training, credentialling and reimbursement policies on their own without knowledge of best practices across other states. Setting national standards will "ensure consistent quality and portability of credentials across states, which supports individual workers and the patients they serve," Maxey said.
The country is currently facing a behavioral health workforce shortage.
"By formalizing these roles, clinicians with graduate-level or higher degrees can focus on higher-level services, reducing administrative burden and burnout and improving access to care," she said.
FORE awarded the grant as part of its Innovation Challenge Program, which launched in 2022 to "support new solutions to some of the most difficult issues related to the opioid and overdose crisis," FORE President Karen A. Scott, MD, MPH, said.
"Indiana University School of Medicine's efforts to create a national framework for training and sustaining the behavioral health and substance use paraprofessional workforce align directly with our goal of building a more effective and resilient care system. We're proud to support this important initiative," Scott said.
The Bowen's Center's work on this new initiative was developed based on a direct recommendation within the "Playbook for Enhancing Indiana's Mental & Behavioral Health Workforce," which was published by the Bowen Center in 2024 and supported with a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.
About the Indiana University School of Medicine
The IU School of Medicine is the largest medical school in the U.S. and is annually ranked among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers high-quality medical education, access to leading medical research and rich campus life in nine Indiana cities, including rural and urban locations consistently recognized for livability. According to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, the IU School of Medicine ranks No. 13 in 2024 National Institutes of Health funding among all public medical schools in the country.
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