WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATION AND TRAINING (WET) OVERVIEW

   

Workforce Development, Education And Training Overview

The Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), also known as Proposition 63, was passed by California’s voters in November 2004. Workforce Development, Education and Training (WET) is an important MHSA component intended to fund strategies that address occupational shortages in the public mental health field through the increase in consumer and family member employment, workforce competencies and skills, diversity, and linguistic capacity. Alameda County’s vision for WET is to ensure a workforce in Alameda County Behavioral Health Care Services (ACBHCS) that is sufficient in size, diversity, and linguistic capacity to deliver services and supports to consumers/clients and family members that are culturally responsive and integrate the values of wellness, recovery, and resiliency. The ACBHCS workforce includes both the county and contracted community-based organizations (CBOs) that provide mental health services.
 

Alameda County’s Workforce Development, Education and Training Goals

  • Increase consumer, family member and parent partner employment and retention rates within the ACBHCS workforce.
  • Increase overall and specific workforce competencies and skills throughout the ACBHCS workforce.
  • Increase workforce diversity, cultural competency and linguistic capacity to reflect Alameda County’s un-served, underserved and inappropriately served communities including consumer, family member, African American, Asian Pacific Islander, Latino, Native American, South Asian, and LGBTIQQ2S communities.
  • Recruit and retain individuals in hard-to-fill positions, as identified by the Workforce Needs Assessment.
  • “Growing Our Own” - provide training, develop internal career pathways and offer financial incentives that will enable current staff to expand their roles within the ACBHCS workforce.
  • Partner with local and regional educational institutions, from high schools to graduate schools, to create articulated mental health educational pathways for Alameda County.