Social Work Training Program Meeting the Needs of Rural West Virginia

Due to the lack of medical and financial resources in rural communities in West Virginia, many people are left without access to behavioral healthcare providers. The School of Social Work at West Virginia University is working to overcome these shortages in rural and medically underserved communities in West Virginia.

The School is ranked 75th out of 234 programs across the nation by U.S. News and World Report, jumping from 103rd in 2017. Its Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training program, which trains Master of Social Work students to work in these underserved communities, received its third cycle of funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration in fall 2017.

“The overall goal of the training program is two-fold — to develop highly skilled practitioners to provide behavioral health services in integrated settings and to develop leaders in rural integrated health service delivery development and implementation,” said Carrie Rishel, professor of social work and director of the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training program. “These dual goals are critical to meeting the needs of our rural state. We need more effective clinicians competent in prevention and treatment of behavioral health issues. Just as importantly, we need leaders who can develop innovative methods of delivering services that increase access and effectiveness for rural residents.” 

As of 2016, 77 percent of the 31 students who graduated from the program were employed in West Virginia one year after graduating, while all of the graduates were employed in social work positions related to their training, including medical and/or integrated healthcare settings, school-based settings, mental and behavioral health treatment settings, community-based prevention programs and state-level behavioral health administration.

“This training grant program allows us to combine our commitments to the profession of social work and to the University,” said Helen Hartnett, professor of social work. “We are able to simultaneously help improve the lives of West Virginians while honoring the land grant mission of WVU. I think I speak for Dr. Rishel as well when I say that we are more than fortunate to be a part of this program and that we learn as much from the trainees about behavioral healthcare as they do from us.” 

School of Social Work alumni reflect on the training they received, how it has influenced their careers and the difference they are making across the state.

Savanna Brown

Since completing the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training program in 2017, Savanna Brown started her career as a clinical therapist with Community Care of West Virginia. She works in Braxton County, West Virginia, three days per week to provide in-school behavioral health services to children of all ages. Brown also works in Bridgeport, West Virginia, where she provides therapy services. 

“I’ve known for several years that I wanted to work with children, and the program allowed me to narrow that focus in the more specific route of therapy,” Brown said.

Brown works with children who find difficulty understanding and articulating their feelings and emotions. During the program, she learned how to use play therapy, which helps her ease the tension and provide different outlets to allow the children to tell their stories. She uses the technique nearly every day. 

“Since I started this job, it has strengthened my belief that I would like to continue working with children and expanding my knowledge on different therapy models that can be applied to practice with them,” Brown said. 

The program taught Brown the importance of rural culture and how her personal experiences can help her be more competent in her work. 

“Being from rural West Virginia, I was surprised to learn there was still much I didn’t know,” Brown said. “I learned how to better communicate treatment options to locations where such services aren’t rendered.” 

Brown believes that West Virginia is a place that is in dire need of mental health resources and feels that there are several rural locations that often get overlooked. 

“There’s still a stigma surrounding mental health, and the program helped me to reach through that stigma and teach people that mental health is not something to be feared, but to be nurtured,” Brown said. “The Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training program helped bring more people into the workforce who were educated in the ways of rural culture, and willing to work in these locations.” 

Devon Layfield

Devon Layfield understands the importance of integrating healthcare due to her participation in the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training program. She works as a licensed graduate social worker at Wellspring Family Services in Wheeling, West Virginia. Through this role, she works as a Trauma-Informed Elementary Schools (TIES) resource liaison and therapist for two elementary schools. Layfield is also currently pursuing certification in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. 

“Integration takes a step toward providing more effective care for clients, especially in rural areas where transportation may be lacking, dual diagnoses may be present and intergenerational trauma may exist,” Layfield said. “I love the integration that is happening between the agency that I work for and the school system. In this way we are able to provide services to meet the needs of children and families in a variety of settings.” 

Through TIES, Layfield provides trauma-focused individual and family therapy services for elementary-aged children. She also consults with teachers and parents regarding student behaviors, assists with developing and implementing classroom interventions, provides trauma-informed training for school personnel and the community and refers children and families to services and resources. Wendy Barbeau, a student in the Rural Behavioral Health Training program, is an intern with TIES and collects data, develops strategies for promoting the program effectively and assists with the development and implementation of a TIES parents group. 

“The prevalence of trauma, mental illness and substance abuse in West Virginia is higher than in many other states,” Layfield said. “This program provides the education and skill-building that is needed to create strong clinicians and advocates who can work to address these issues.”

Terri Gogus

Since completing the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training program, Terri Gogus has worked diligently to implement integrated mental and behavioral health throughout multiple systems. 

“My passion is to combat substance use disorder in our state through implementation of these comprehensive and holistic approaches,” Gogus said. “Integrating mental health, substance misuse and primary care services produces the best outcomes and has been proven to be the most effective approach to caring for people with multiple health needs.”

Gogus is currently the prevention program manager for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities. She also serves as the project director for two Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration discretionary grants, the West Virginia Partnerships for Success grant and the West Virginia Strategic Prevention Framework for Prescription Drugs grant. 

“Integrating mental and behavioral health in prevention, treatment and recovery is a bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach that addresses the client’s comprehensive healthcare needs,” Gogus said. “Through my training in the program, I have learned how to apply these approaches across all systems. I am now able to lead our state into best practices which will effectively increase outcomes in overall well-being.”

Gogus believes that with the expansion of telemedicine, social workers could be instrumental in expanding integrated mental and behavioral health in rural West Virginia. 

“I think the program is crucial for students in social work in West Virginia primarily because of the severity of substance use disorder in our state,” Gogus said. “Social workers need to be trained on comprehensive approaches to increase the efficacy of prevention, treatment and recovery in our state.” 

Brandi Davis

Brandi Davis began as a case manager and child therapist with the United Summit Center following her graduation from the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training Program and the Master of Social Work program. She then transitioned to the Children’s Home Society in Morgantown, West Virginia, to be a permanency social worker and helped train foster and adoptive parents while also completing home studies to make sure the future parents were capable to adopt. Davis worked in that position for eight months before advancing to a child and family services supervisor position at the Children’s Home Society where she is currently employed. 

“Throughout the program, I learned a lot about how to work within the rural settings of West Virginia to provide adequate mental health and behavioral health sciences,” Davis said. “This program is crucial for students because it allows each student a variety of experiences that they may not otherwise have without the training.” 

Davis believes the program is important because it helped her understand many aspects of the social work field. Through the program, she was able to experience mental health and behaviorial health situations, experiences that involve community engagement and working with a variety of demographics and populations. 

“West Virginia has a very rural community,” Davis said. “I think this program prepares social workers to work within the rural community and rural settings to provide adequate services to a diverse population and to be able to advocate for the communities that lack the resources they need to treat or improve mental health and behavioral health.” 

Mark King

Mark King currently works as a residential therapist at Academy Programs, where he serves at-risk teens with problems related to substance use and behavioral health disorders, such as oppositional defiance, conduct disorder, depression and anxiety. 

“I assess and examine information about teens’ development with their current behaviors and how they connect to their past experiences,” King said. 

While in the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training Program, King learned how to examine things through a bigger scope of practice. He had the opportunity to complete his advanced field placement with the Early Head Start program. While there, King was able to focus his research on infant and toddler mental behavior and developed a strong interest for prevention work in early child development. Following the program, he accepted a position as a therapist, which he has been doing for two years. 

“This program equips students to work in many of the communities of West Virginia who need professionals with additional training and competency,” King said. “As time goes on, I think more people will start to see the impact of the shift and changes occurring in behavioral health.” 

King believes the graduate program challenges social work students to develop a better understanding of behavioral health and its correlation to other issues they may encounter in their future careers. 

“As a (Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training Program) graduate, one of the most important things I learned was being innovative,” King said. “The education I received has allowed for me to be confident in my practice in ways that have been beneficial to the teens that I work with. Stepping out of the box to try new things has contributed to many successful areas of my career so far.” 

In the past, King has supervised students in the program and currently works with two graduates from the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training Program. 

“It has been an amazing opportunity being able to offer training and insight as they navigate through their own interests and passions,” King said. 

Andrea St.Clair

Since graduating from the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training Program, Andrea St.Clair has focused on healing those suffering from mental health disorders. She works in a behavioral health interdisciplinary program as an outpatient mental health clinical social worker and therapist at the Huntington Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where she works with veterans and their families in an integrated setting. 

“It is an incredible program that truly helps meet a variety of needs for our veterans and their families, while also working closely with the hospital and community providers to accommodate a variety of different areas unique to each veteran’s life,” St.Clair said. 

Prior to her current position, St.Clair helped manage a 24/7 statewide mental health and substance use helpline for West Virginia. She then transitioned into coordinating the state’s designated call center for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. 

“Community integration helps bridge treatment gaps through making a wide-range of care possibilities available to community members in one central location,” St.Clair said. “Primary care and community clinics have become an entry point for mental health and substance use treatment, which plays a crucial role in identifying those who are at-risk for suicide, substance use disorders and mental health conditions.” 

St.Clair believes the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training program is crucial for students in social work because, although it is already an integrated field, the program helps identify ways social workers can transcend the field and integrate within different disciplines, as well as treatment and service settings. The program also showed her the importance of working as a team towards the common goal of being in the helping profession and enriching the lives of others. 

“Integrated care not only meets the client where they are and assists in meeting their needs through one point of contact or location, but it also helps reduce stigma and shame to those seeking mental health and substance use treatment and those at-risk for suicide,” St.Clair said. “Treating individuals holistically is crucial to being able to engage individuals in treatment and consolidate care, which is extremely helpful, especially in rural West Virginia.” 

To learn more about the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health Training program, visit socialwork.wvu.edu/research/integrated-mental-and-behavioral-health-training-program .