Behavioral Health turning to interns

Faced with chronic staffing shortages, the county Department of Behavioral Health Services is turning to paid interns for help in hopes they will one day become qualified staffers.

The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved accepting a nearly $1.5 million grant to fund hiring students or graduates from several local schools under the Mentored Internship Program.

They include Central Union, Southwest and Desert Oasis high schools in El Centro, Calexico

High and Brawley High, Imperial Valley College and San Diego State University-Imperial Valley Campus, a Behavioral Health report states.

Those from high schools must have already graduated, the report states.

Each intern will be mentored by shadowing professionals in a variety of fields, including nursing, psychiatry, therapy and community outreach.

Upon completion of their internships and degrees, interns will be prepared to apply for positions at Behavioral Health “and be highly competitive because of the internship experience,” the report adds.

The MIP funding will run for 18 months, and Behavioral Health Director Leticia Plancarte-Garcia said the agency expects to continue it afterward under Mental Health Services Act funding. No monies will come from the county general fund budget.

The agency “like most counties in California, is experiencing staffing shortages due to the

‘Great Resignation’ as a significant number of staff are being lost to other industries like education, healthcare companies that offer telehealth services, and other sectors…As a result, services for those in need are not readily available,” the report states.

The interns will do work based on their experience and ability, Plancarte-Garcia added.

High school graduates will get $16 per hour, IVC students $18 and SDSU $20. The grant has the capacity for the hiring of 80 interns who would work 10 hours per week for an average of six months, the report adds.

Besides funding the interns, the grant will pay for an administrative analyst and personnel to implement the program.