MIDLAND, Texas — As work continues for building the Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center, staffing the 200-bed facility will require over 300 workers. Making sure that there are enough mental health workers for the health center is a top priority in the region.
The expansion of the facility to 200 beds from the originally planned 100 created additional funding that will go toward adding a Mental Health Workforce Training Program at Midland College.
MC has a history of training students for healthcare jobs in West Texas, with this program set to focus on mental health positions.
“We’ve got a lot of experience in those arenas, working primarily in medical settings, but when you add this behavioral health setting, there really isn’t a lot of training going on, and so we’re going to be one of the key providers for this new behavioral health center," said Dr. Steve Thomas, president of Midland College.
The Permian Basin Behavioral Health Center is looking to start serving patients in 2025.
For Midland College, new mental health programs will aim to provide the workforce needed using homegrown talent.
“The workforce is really important to develop that locally, because we know we’re not going to be able to recruit a lot of students and/or workers to work in that facility, so we’re going to grow our own," said Thomas. "We’re going to recruit locally, we’re going to train them in this kind of umbrella workforce program, but it’s all geared toward mental health providers.”
The grant that MC received amounted to $1.75 million, and will finance the new addition.
“That certainly will help us go a long way in developing really a robust curriculum for these students, to do the recruiting and the marketing we need to do to attract people that want to go into this field, because it’s all going to be brand new for us," said Thomas. "But it’s really an extension of what we already do with our health sciences programs, but it’s really digging down — drilling down if you will — to those entry-level kinds of jobs.”
With mental health issues important to address in the Permian Basin, Midland College will be doing it’s part to assist.
“We’re seeing it probably all over the region, and there are just not enough professionals in the field to handle the numbers that we’re dealing with," said Thomas. "So, yeah, this is going to be very important for us to provide as many trained and qualified personnel as we can.”
The specific programs that MC will offer are Inpatient Psychiatric Technician, Behavioral Health Care Manager in Primary Care and Qualified Mental Health Professional Assistant. Thomas mentioned that they are looking at curriculum models and working quickly to finalize the courses so they can hire instructors.