Email UpdatesPeople living in rural communities experience significant behavioral health challenges. Too often, access to care is limited by workforce shortages, transportation barriers, and a lack of local services. Yet rural communities also have important assets that can support new approaches to care: trust, strong local ties, and deep community insight.
This Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) webinar will highlight how rural providers and health systems in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee are using community-based workforce models to expand behavioral health care. Speakers will share lessons on integrating peer support specialists, community health workers, and community paramedics into care teams, as well as practical insights on program design, recruitment, care team integration, sustainability, and key implementation considerations. The webinar will draw on provider experience and findings from an upcoming CHCS brief.
The insights shared can help inform state and community efforts to strengthen rural behavioral health care, including opportunities emerging through the Rural Health Transformation Program. The webinar is designed for state Medicaid and behavioral health leaders, rural health providers, community-based organizations, and others interested in expanding community-based workforce approaches to improve access to behavioral health care in rural communities