ECHO: Building a Stronger Behavioral Health Workforce

Designed around case-based learning and mentorship, ECHO sessions engage participants from across the country in peer-to-peer discussions that explore innovative solutions to build a robust and sustainable behavioral health workforce.

“One of the major benefits of sharing this space with other professionals is learning how others outside of my organization have faced and overcome the same challenges. Not only are the specific strategies themselves helpful, but so is the motivation that comes with hearing that my organization may be lagging behind in addressing these issues.”

Center for Workforce Solutions ECHO Cohort 1 Participant, June 2024

This ECHO will bring together mental health and substance use provider organizations for a series of discussions to explore innovative and scalable workforce solutions for creating a stronger behavioral health workforce. Each session will consist of an educational presentation around a workforce solution, a case presentation from an ECHO participant, and a peer-to-peer discussion around the case presentation. The ECHO series will cover workforce solutions related to topics such as:

  • Organizational culture: Recruitment and retentions strategies that relate to creating a culture of wellness.
  • Clinical models: How to leverage the workforce more efficiently and effectively, building more cohesive and collaborative teams.
  • Workforce expansion: Advancing pathways to expand the clinical and non-traditional workforce to address shortages and innovations in care.
  • Quality and accountability: Opportunities to increase data-driven decision making that lead to reduced administrative burden.
  • Regulatory and payment: Ways to stay informed and make an impact on regulations that can strengthen the behavioral health workforce.

Learning Objectives

By participating in this ECHO, organizations will:

  • Explore innovative solutions to address current and emerging challenges in the behavioral health workforce landscape.
  • Develop practical strategies they can use to address at least one persistent workforce related challenge.
  • Foster a supportive peer network among behavioral health leaders to share best practices, collaborate on solutions, and provide support in workforce development efforts.

Participant Eligibility

  • The Workforce Solutions ECHO is primarily targeted to mental health and substance use provider organizations, but we also welcome mental health and substance use state and regional associations. Up to 35 organizations will be selected for this ECHO.
  • We encourage organizations to apply for this opportunity and attend each session as a team (recommended team size: 2-5 people). Team members can come from various levels in your organization, although content will be geared towards decision makers (executive, clinical, program and operations leadership) and up-and-coming leaders (promising staff, new supervisors, etc.).
    • If you are applying as a state or regional association, we encourage you to also apply with a team of staff, possibly including an association member.
    • We encourage participation from a diverse set of organizations – a variety of service types, locations and sizes – to maximize perspectives offered throughout the ECHO series.

Time Commitment and Participant Expectations

Session Attendance: This ECHO will be offered in seven 90-minute sessions from October 2024-April 2025.  See session dates in the application and in the FAQ document. Organizations who apply for these opportunities should be available to attend all sessions to truly benefit from this ECHO. For maximum impact in your organization, your ECHO team should also plan to meet regularly to discuss workforce solution implementation, in addition to attending ECHO sessions.

Case Presentations: Once accepted into the ECHO, participants will be asked to submit one case presentation describing a workforce challenge area and/or a potential scalable solution for addressing their workforce challenges. Each session, one organization will be selected to present their case and engage in peer-to-peer discussion around solutions. This will allow participants to gather insightful feedback and guidance from other organizations.

Assessments: To assess your organization’s progress, gather meaningful data on workforce challenges that inform intervention, and for continuous improvement of the ECHO series, participants will be asked to complete:

  1. A pre-series ECHO organization assessment.
  2. Brief post-session participant surveys.
  3. A post-series ECHO organizational assessment.

Apply by 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, September 19.

Applications are now closed

Selected applicants will be notified of acceptance into the ECHO by September 30.

Important: If you are applying to participate in the ECHO, please reserve the time slot for the first session (Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2:30-4 p.m. ET) until you hear back about your acceptance into the series.

Project ECHO FAQs

ECHO State or National Association Application

ECHO Mental Health and Substance Use Provider Organization Application

Questions? Please contact Workforce@TheNationalCouncil.org.