Elizabeth Landsberg, California Department of Healthcare Access and Information and Jessica Pitt, California Labor and Workforce Development Agency: Collaboration to Grow the Behavioral Health Workforce 

Today we’re going to take a look at how America’s largest state is tackling one of the biggest
challenges in the nation’s healthcare system: increasing the supply of behavioral health
providers. As we’ll hear from our guests on this episode of WorkforceRx, heightened
attention to the issue from California Governor Newsom‘s administration has led to more funding and a greater degree of coordination at the state level. “Our agencies and departments are coming together in ways they have never come together before to really collaborate and figure out how we can align and leverage resources, expertise, and opportunities,” says Jessica Pitt, assistant deputy secretary of Healthcare Workforce at the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Elizabeth Landsberg, director of the California Department of Healthcare Access and Information, calls out new data gathering and modeling initiatives that support the department’s goals of increasing the diversity of the health workforce and the number of providers in medically underserved areas. “The data allows us to see the race, ethnicity, and the languages spoken by the workforce. We’re
using that data to prioritize our efforts geographically and by role to address the largest
shortage areas,” she explains. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for an inside look
at California’s strategies for developing and diversifying its behavioral health workforce that include apprenticeships, increasing clinical placements for trainees, and integrating
behavioral health into primary care practices.

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Eva Sage-Gavin, Senior Managing Director of Accenture’s Global Talent & Organization/Human Potential Practice: “The Workforce Has Changed Forever.”

Workers are showing the strains of social isolation, disrupted work and family routines, and sustained anxiety for personal safety — all induced by the pandemic. Fortunately, employers are taking note according to Eva Sage-Gavin, a former Fortune 500 executive who now advises C-suite leaders on talent strategy for Accenture. Sage-Gavin says employers are realizing they need to take a “whole human” approach to HR to navigate through this crisis of human resilience, and address employee needs for connection, relationship, and purpose if they are going to keep their workforce productive. In this revealing episode of WorkforceRx, Sage-Gavin and Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan – who first met a decade ago serving on President Obama’s Skills for America’s Future initiative – discuss a new global partnership to connect displaced workers to jobs, the worrisome “she-cession” as women drop out of the workforce, the enhanced impact of modern boards, and a key ingredient to helping employers solve problems in these extraordinary times.

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Walter Greenleaf, PhD, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University: Improving Care with Virtual Environments

When he first started trying to score clinical research data in the mid-1980’s, Stanford University neuroscientist Walter Greenleaf was using a ruler, pen and paper. Now, thanks in part to his pioneering efforts, similar research can be conducted using virtual reality and augmented reality devices. These technologies are also being integrated throughout medicine, including treatment for various mental health issues, a special focus of his. For instance, patients can be exposed to anxieties or fears through carefully designed virtual environments, allowing them to build confidence while clinicians gauge their progress. Greenleaf, a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, also sees broad potential for using virtual environments in workforce development and training, from handling difficult people and situations to bridging cultural gaps. Join Futuro Health’s CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan as she draws fascinating insights from Greenleaf gathered over decades of groundbreaking work in academia, technology development and medical product development, and find out what two skills he believes will open doors for healthcare workers in the decades to come.

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