The Ballmer Group has announced grants totaling $38 million in support of efforts to strengthen the behavioral health workforce in Washington State.

With the aim of expanding the pipeline, competencies, and diversity of the behavioral health workforce, the commitments include a grant of $24.7 million over four years to fund scholarships at institutions of higher education in the state. To be coordinated by the University of Washington's School of Social Work, the initiative will support four hundred students in master's programs in social work and mental health counseling who will go on to work in community-based behavioral health programs serving individuals and families in poverty and/or suffering from long-term mental health and/or substance-use issues.

In addition, the Behavioral Health Institute at UW Medicine's Harborview Medical Center will receive a three-year, $5.5 million grant to establish statewide behavioral health apprenticeship programs for early and mid-career professionals in collaboration with community partners, and a two-year, $2.8 million grant in support of collaborations with state and local government partners aimed at redesigning Washington's behavioral health crisis response system.

The foundation also awarded nearly $3.2 million over five years to UW Medicine's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences to fund the development and pilot of an undergraduate-level training program that will prepare behavioral health support specialists (BHHS); a four-year, $1.1 million grant to the Washington Council for Behavioral Health to pilot new ways of providing clinical supervision in behavioral health agencies serving predominantly low-income people and those experiencing mental health crises; a two-year, $400,000 grant to the Washington State Health Care Authority in support of its efforts to boost the uptake of behavioral health peers in the Medicaid and commercial systems; and a three-year, $500,000 grant to the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship, matching the state's investment in a Graduate Scholarship in Advanced Health Care program that initially will target nurse-practitioners.

"In our home state of Washington, the need for behavioral health services is reaching critical levels, in large part due to the isolation, grief, and economic calamity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," wrote Ballmer Group co-founder Connie Ballmer in a blog post. "This is just the beginning. It will take time for our workforce to grow and for our system to adapt — and workforce capacity is far from the only solution needed. It is critical for us all to understand problems facing our state's behavioral health infrastructure, and to continue investing in solutions that benefit every Washingtonian."