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

Families, Systems, & Health, Vol 40(4), Dec 2022, 592-595; doi:10.1037/fsh0000751Assessing 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)
Source: Families, Systems, and Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research