People living in rural communities experience significant behavioral health challenges, including high rates of substance use disorder, suicide, and social isolation. Too often, access to care is limited by workforce shortages, transportation barriers, and a lack of local services. Yet rural communities also have important assets that can support new approaches to care: trust, strong local ties, and deep community insight.

Drawing on these strengths, rural providers across the country are integrating community members into care delivery, leveraging their relationships and understanding of local needs. Roles such as peer support specialists, community health workers, and community paramedics can extend care team capacity, strengthen engagement, and connect Medicaid members and other rural residents to needed services. The federal Rural Health Transformation Program presents an important opportunity for states to invest in these models, expand their reach, and lay the groundwork for more sustainable financing approaches.

This Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) webinar will highlight practical lessons from rural providers and health systems in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee that have implemented community-based workforce models to address behavioral health needs. Drawing on both first-hand experience and findings from an upcoming CHCS brief, speakers will share practical insights on program design, recruitment, care team integration, sustainability, and other key implementation considerations.

This webinar is designed for state Medicaid and behavioral health leaders, rural health providers, community-based organizations, and others interested in expanding community-based workforce approaches to improve access to behavioral health care in rural communities.

Agenda

I. Welcome and Introduction

Speaker: Ashley Jasko, Program Officer, CHCS

A. Jasko will welcome participants and outline the webinar agenda.

II.   Expanding Rural Behavioral Health Care Access through Community-Based Workforce Models

Speaker: Hadley Fitzgerald, Senior Program Officer, CHCS

H. Fitzgerald will provide an overview of key findings from CHCS’ research on community-based workforce approaches to expanding behavioral health care access in rural communities.

III. Community-Based Workforce Models in Action

Speakers will describe how their organizations are using a community-based workforce approach to improve behavioral health access in rural communities. They will discuss their program approaches, implementation experiences, challenges, successes, and lessons learned.

• Parinda Khatri, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, River Valley Health, Tennessee
• Courtney Wright, CPS-AD, CPS-Y, FPM, Executive Director, Walton Empowers, Georgia
• Lt. Cailan Calloway, Program Director, McDowell County Emergency Services, North Carolina

IV. Moderated Q&A 

Moderator: H. Fitzgerald