WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki recently announced the
department would add approximately 1,600 mental health clinicians as
well as nearly 300 support staff to its existing workforce to help meet
the increased demand for mental health services. The Veterans Health
Administration (VHA) has developed an aggressive national recruitment
program to implement the hiring process quickly and efficiently.
“The mental health and well-being of our brave men and women who have
served the Nation is the highest priority for this department,” said
Secretary Shinseki. “We must ensure that all Veterans seeking mental
health care have access to timely, responsive and high-quality care.”
VA has developed an aggressive national mental health hiring initiative
to improve recruitment and hiring, marketing, education and training
programs, and retention efforts for mental health professionals, to
include targeted recruitment in rural and highly-rural markets. This
will help VA to meet existing and future demands of mental health care
services in an integrated collaborative team environment and continue to
position VA as an exemplary workplace for mental health care
professionals.
It is critical for VA to proactively engage psychiatrists and other
mental health care providers about the vital mission to deliver
high-quality mental health services, especially for returning combat
Veterans.
“The VA mental health community is aggressively transforming the way
mental health care services are provided to the Veteran population. As
the mental health care workforce continues to increase, VA is committed
to improving Veterans’ access to services, especially for at-risk
Veterans,” said VA’s Under Secretary for Health Dr. Robert Petzel.
The national recruitment program provides VHA with an in-house team of
highly skilled professional recruiters employing private sector best
practices to fill the agency’s most mission critical clinical and
executive positions. The recruitment team consists of 21 national,
dedicated health care recruiters targeting physician and specialty
health care occupations. These recruiters also understand the needs of
Veterans because each member is a Veteran.
VHA has also established a hiring and tracking task force to provide
oversight for this initiative to move the process forward expeditiously
in a focused manner to ensure challenges, issues, or concerns are
addressed and resolved. This task force is accountable for reporting
progress in hiring of mental health professionals in these occupations:
psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health nurses, social workers,
mental health technicians, marriage and family therapists and licensed
professional counselors.
VHA anticipates the majority of hires will be selected within
approximately six months and the most “hard-to-fill” positions filled by
the end of the second quarter of FY 2013. VA has an existing workforce
of 20,590 mental health staff that includes nurses, psychiatrists,
psychologists, and social workers.
Interested mental health care providers can find additional information
about VA careers and apply for jobs online at www.vacareers.va.gov.
To locate the nearest VA facility or Vet Center for enrollment and to
get scheduled for care, Veterans can visit VA’s website at www.va.gov.
Immediate help is available at www.VeteransCrisisLine.net
or by calling the Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 (push 1) or texting
838255.
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