First-year data evaluating the supervision components of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska’s ARPA Awards Program are the focus of a recently released paper in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Rural Mental Health.
A 2021 study by the Nebraska Legislature identified lack of supervision as a major contributor to Nebraska’s behavioral health workforce shortage, which led BHECN to dedicate an entire category of ARPA Awards funding to address the issue.
The data show that the investment led to a 110% increase in supervised providers, significant reductions in supervision barriers and expanded supervisory capacity across participating organizations, said Jessie Buche, director of the BHECN-ARPA Awards Program and one of the authors of the paper.
“Most clinicians must complete several years of supervised practice before independent licensure, but supervision activities are often unpaid and difficult for organizations to support,” Buche said. “This makes supervision one of the biggest behavioral health workforce barriers.”
Other authors on the paper, which can be accessed here, were Caitlyn Wayment, ARPA Awards Program manager; Sydney Buckland, PhD, BHECN research project coordinator; Marley Doyle, MD, BHECN director; and Melissa Tibbits, PhD, associate director of evaluation.
The ARPA Awards Program was established after the Nebraska Legislature charged BHECN with distributing pandemic recovery funds to address key behavioral health issues. Through the program, 19 organizations in Nebraska received funding from 2022 through 2025 to support supervision. The organizations used the funds to compensate supervisors’ time, pay supervisees and offset costs for testing materials and other licensure needs.
The ARPA Awards Program also fostered many innovative approaches to addressing behavioral health workforce challenges, particularly in rural and underserved areas, Dr. Doyle said.
While the program is sunsetting, some initiatives launched during its operation — including many involving supervision — have garnered support from private entities such as philanthropic organizations and will continue into the future, Dr. Doyle said.
Being able to publish research about these initiatives is another way to help their impact continue, she said.
“We’re thrilled to be able to publish findings from this amazing program, as they highlight methods and initiatives that we believe can help strengthen the behavioral health workforce, not just in Nebraska, but across the entire nation,” Dr. Doyle said.