Behavioral health workforce development

In collaboration with the  Children’s Behavioral Health Plan Implementation Advisory Board and with funding from the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF), CHDI developed a strategic plan to guide the State in building a sustainable workforce capable of meeting the behavioral health needs of Connecticut's children, youth, and families. 

The final plan, Strengthening the Behavioral Health Workforce for Children, Youth, and Families: A Strategic Plan for Connecticut, was published in November 2023. It includes system, policy and practice, short- and long-term recommendations regarding the workforce pipeline, recruitment, retention, diversity strategies, and competency areas to strengthen.   

Read the plan

The plan included eight recommendations:

1. Increase reimbursement rates for children’s behavioral health services to cover actual costs of high-quality care and establish a transparent and systematic rate-setting process.  
2. Make immediate and significant investments in behavioral health workforce recruitment and retention. 
3. Develop a children’s behavioral health workforce center that can track and respond to trends in supply and demand and sustain workforce development efforts.  
4. Grow and diversify the children’s behavioral health workforce pipeline.
5. Increase behavioral health training across the child-serving workforce.  
6. Remove administrative barriers to workforce entry and retention.  
7. Expand the youth and family peer support workforce.
8. Expand the role and capacity of community-based organizations in prevention and early intervention. 

As of spring 2025, significant progress has been made on some of the plan's recommendations, including:

• In response to a study of Medicaid rates for behavioral health services which found Connecticut’s rates were significantly less than those in comparable states (by approximately $48 million), $7 million was allocated to increase children’s behavioral health Medicaid rates. 

• A Medicaid rate was established for Urgent Crisis Center (UCC) services.

• The CGA appropriated $10 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to DCF to be used in support of children's behavioral health.  DCF prioritized this funding in support of behavioral health provider workforce recruitment and retention efforts.  Funding was distributed in three ways: a portion was allocated to all DCF behavioral health contracts; another portion was allocated to behavioral health in-home treatment services contracts; and a third portion was allocated to IICAPS. This represents a much-needed infusion of resources, but as they are one-time investments, the impact will be time-limited. 

• The CT Health Horizons initiative has continued to provide tuition assistance to Master’s in Social Work (MSW) students. 

• The Governor implemented a new student loan repayment program. 

• New asynchronous workforce trainings (KidsMentalHealthTraining.org) were launched by CHDI following development of an online platform funded by DCF.  

• Public Act 24-30 allows CT to participate in a multistate social work licensure compact. While this may facilitate practitioners transferring to Connecticut, this will only have impact if CT is able to address disincentives for practice here, such as salaries and reimbursement rates.