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Assessing for socioeconomic background diversity in behavioral health workforce development programs.

Bridget E WellerCarla Adkison-JohnsonJennifer Harrison
Published in: Families, systems & health : the journal of collaborative family healthcare (2022)
Assessing workforce diversity is an increasing area of evolution. A comprehensive assessment of socioeconomic diversity is important in that it can help identify needs and enable planned inclusion across a range of students. Subsequently, a more comprehensive set of background indicators is needed. The purpose of this brief report is to describe the approach we are using to determine socioeconomic background among individuals participating in a behavioral health workforce program. By using 3 strategies to assess background, we were able to determine that 4 individuals reported being unable to pay for housing, 3 indicated they had sold plasma, and 1 had experienced homelessness since starting graduate school. Our findings provide a starting point for using a comprehensive set of indicators to guide the recruitment and selection process in workforce development programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Keyphrases
  • public health
  • mental health
  • mental illness
  • physical activity
  • high school
  • quality improvement
  • health information
  • climate change
  • risk assessment
  • human health