Program Evaluations

This project’s purpose is to advise the California Department of Health Care Access & Information (HCAI) on targeted investments in pathway programs to diversify and expand California’s behavioral health workforce. Key questions include:

• Should HCAI invest in pathway programs using its expected Behavioral Health Service Act (BHSA) funds to diversify and expand the pipeline of future behavioral health providers?
• If yes, what priorities and parameters should guide HCAI investments in pathway programs generally (profession agnostic) and for behavioral health specifically?

To answer these questions, we will use a three-phase mixed methods approach:

1. Phase I: Stakeholder consultations and literature and desk review to conduct a landscape assessment of existing health professions pathway programs, including programs specific to behavioral health fields
2. Phase 2: A formative evaluation of HCAI’s existing pathway programs to capture and catalogue key design elements of funded programs and program effectiveness in achieving intended outcomes, based on administrative data, document review, and stakeholder consultation
3. Phase 3: Development of a set of recommendations on whether and how HCAI should use BHSA dollars for targeted pathway program expansion to strengthen California’s behavioral health workforce