High Plains Mental Health Center is\npleased to announce a grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, Logan, Kan.,\nwill allow staff members to advance their educations and help grow the regional\nmental health workforce in the midst of unprecedented need for services. The\nFoundation has awarded scholarships to three current High Plains staff members,\nwho will pursue Master\u2019s of Social Work degrees at Fort Hays State University\nwith the intention to become full-time therapists in Northwest Kansas after\ncompleting the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are incredibly grateful for the\nHansen Foundation\u2019s generous support and assistance in increasing access to\nmental health services in Northwest Kansas,\u201d said Walt Hill, executive director\nof High Plains. \u201cWe believe this project will make a significant difference in\nthe lives of our staff and in helping us address workforce shortages that have\nhindered our ability to expand services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A shortage of mental health professionals has been a significant barrier in rural Kansas, where the availability of qualified workforce is declining, even as the need for community mental health services is increasing. According to information from FHSU, approximately 12 percent of the Kansas population lives in western Kansas. However, less than 5 percent of mental health professionals live and work in the western half of the state. The number of clients served by High Plains has increased significantly since 2017, with nearly 6,700 clients served in 2020 \u2013 the highest number in the agency\u2019s 57-year history. Experts in the mental health field are concerned the need for services will continue to grow in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic due to increased stress, isolation and grief experienced by many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recruiting a sufficient number of\nmental health professionals to meet increasing levels of need has been\ndifficult, partly due to fewer college students pursuing careers in mental\nhealth and increased workforce competition in urban areas \u2013 which often can\noffer higher salaries, Hill said. Turnover rates are often high, but High\nPlains has seen success with previous \u201cgrow your own\u201d workforce initiatives, he\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have found that employees who\nhave ties to the region are more likely to have lengthy careers at High Plains.\nWe are so thankful for the Hansen Foundation providing an opportunity to invest\nin three of our dedicated and skilled staff members, so they can continue\ninvesting their time and talent in our Northwest Kansas communities,\u201d Hill\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A $37,500 Hansen scholarship fund\nwill provide the staff members with $7,500 of tuition assistance per year for\nup to two years \u2013 the duration of FHSU\u2019s new MSW program. The staff members\nwill be obligated to continue working at High Plains for a few years in\nexchange for the scholarship funding. The three staff members involved in the\nprogram are Meriah Escarcega, Carmen Morales and Mandy Stock, all of whom have\nyears of experience working in various capacities at High Plains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meriah is a Recovery Specialist\nbased in Hays and has a bachelor\u2019s in psychology from FHSU. She said she has\nalways known she wanted a career in mental health or substance use counseling,\nbut she wasn\u2019t sure if pursuing a master\u2019s degree would be within her reach\nfinancially. She will begin her MSW studies in August and hopes to become an\noutpatient therapist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want to practice as a therapist\nand work more directly with clients in a way that I can help them,\u201d she said.\n\u201cThere is such a stigma regarding mental health and I want to be a part of\nhelping people understand that it is OK if they need therapy, even if it is\njust to vent every so often.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mandy is a Recovery Specialist based\nin Osborne who also will begin her MSW studies at FHSU this fall. She is a\nmother of three, and finished her bachelor\u2019s degree in 2015. Shortly after, she\nbegan her job at High Plains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I came to High Plains to work\nin mental health as a Recovery Specialist three years ago, I felt things\n\u2018click\u2019 with my personal strengths, my work and my interests all lining up for\nthe first time,\u201d Mandy said. \u201cI love what we get to do, helping people to live\ntheir best lives. I am passionate about working with families and children, in\nparticular.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carmen has worked at High Plains for\nsix years and also currently serves as a Recovery Specialist based in Hays. She\nis bilingual and said she hopes to help increase access to mental health\nservices for the Spanish-speaking population in Northwest Kansas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI chose social work as my career\nbecause I wanted to make a difference in people\u2019s lives and help vulnerable\npopulations,\u201d she said. \u201cI also wanted to further my education to be able to\nclose the gap in services for the Spanish-speaking population in Western Kansas\nwho struggle to reach out for services due to language barriers and cultural\nstigma.\u201dHigh\nPlains Mental Health Center<\/strong> is\na licensed community mental health center dedicated to the aggressive pursuit\nof providing a comprehensive mental health program to the residents of\nNorthwest Kansas. Embodied in this pursuit are fundamental principles of\nestablishing quality services as close to home as possible, at an affordable\nfee, and delivered in the least disruptive manner available. Such services will\noffer a continuum of care so that treatment can be individualized, and our\nstaff can respond quickly and compassionately to those reaching out to us. \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" High Plains Mental Health Center is pleased to announce a grant from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, Logan, Kan., will allow staff members to advance… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60080,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60079\/revisions\/60080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}