U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon, speaks on the House floor on March 10, 2023. (C-SPAN Screenshot)
U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas never pursued a master’s degree and a career in mental health after she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.
She decided she didn’t want to end up with a pile of debt. But Oregon and other states need more behavioral health professionals, and now she’s trying to do something to encourage more people to enter the field.
Salinas is co-sponsoring a bill to create a scholarship program for students pursuing an undergraduate or graduate-level degree to work in a behavioral health field with U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro, a New York Republican. It would pay for tuition, and other expenses, like textbooks, which can add up.
The average graduate with a master’s in social work had $67,000 in debt in 2019, while students with graduate degrees in psychology can have debts up to $160,000.
The cost can discourage people from pursuing an advanced degree which is required for many behavioral health jobs.
“I know from my own experience it was something I considered seriously,” said Salinas, who earned her bachelor’s in 1994.
In exchange for covering tuition, the bill would require graduates to work in an area where the drug overdose exceeds the national average or in an area with a shortage of mental health providers. For each year a student received a scholarship, they would have to work a year in an underserved area.
But curtailing education expenses, the bill aims to recruit people to the field who have fewer means and are underrepresented, like people of color, and those who speak different languages. After graduation, they can return to their communities or other areas with high unmet needs to work.
“This bill really is to tackle some of those areas and those populations where we have a lack of providers,” Salinas said.
The proposed funding for the bill is $75 million annually nationwide, though that could change. There’s no estimate of how many students this would potentially help.
In Oregon, the needs are high for different types of care from outpatient to residential.
A state analysis found that Oregon has a demand for 3,700 more beds in residential facilities for different types of mental health and addiction treatment. And while facilities might have the beds, they lack the staff to use them.
This means that as Oregon seeks to expand its system, gaining more workers is critical.
The proposal has wide support, including from the Oregon Council for Behavioral Health, an industry group which represents providers in Oregon.
Heather Jefferis, the council’s executive director, said the scholarship proposal is one way to increase the workforce.
“It’s not going to resolve the issue in and by itself but it’s definitely an effective tool because we have a lack of culturally and linguistically sensitive providers,” Jefferis said.
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