Episode 8: Julia O’Connor on mental health and the workforce - clinicians, peer support, community health workers.
Julia O’Connor is a Health and Social Policy Advisor for the Workforce Board for the State of Washington. She has a deep understanding of the workforce as relates to mental health, thinking about all the issues affecting the ability to attract, develop, and keep therapists, community health workers, peer counselors, and the myriad of other mental and behavioral health workers engaged and productive. The issues are many: compensation, licensure, reciprocity, school loan burden, racial justice, increasing the workforce, dealing with the impact of the pandemic and accelerated use of technology, and yes, reimbursement rates. An MSW herself, she made the switch from direct counseling to public policy.
