New Programs Equip Rural Social Workers With Much-Needed Resiliency Skills
Center for Community Engagement & Collaboration supports workforce development in underserved areas of Kansas
Growing up on a farm in western Kansas, Christina Boyd has a passion for the state’s vast rural areas, even though she teases that the wind blows 50 miles per hour and the nearest Starbucks is an hour away. So it’s probably not surprising that this child of the prairie has dedicated her career as a social worker to providing care for the people who call western Kansas home.
Boyd, LSCSW, LCAC, who holds an MSW from Washburn University, says she has done just about every job imaginable for a social worker in a rural setting, where you have to do it all because there are so few providers and such much unmet need. Today she is an associate professor of practice and the workforce development coordinator with the KU School of Social Welfare Center for Community Engagement & Collaboration (CCEC). She first joined the faculty in 2014 as an adjunct professor in the western Kansas Masters of Social Welfare program, and went on to become the program director.
The Center for Community Engagement & Outreach advances authentic relationships with key community and university partners to complement the School of Social Welfare’s community-engaged scholarship and instruction, build on strengths, meet needs in our profession and society, and advance a vision of justice.
As the CCEC’s workforce development coordinator, Boyd helps support the social welfare workforce in the frontier and rural areas of Kansas, providers who are stretched thin trying to address the vast unmet needs in these medically underserved communities. A shortage of health care workers has always been an issue in the rural areas, she says, but the problem has accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic. “It’s beyond crisis: It’s dire,” Boyd exclaims.
According to the Rural Health Information Hub, only four of Kansas’s 105 counties have enough staff to serve the mental health needs in their communities. Several rural Kansas counties don’t have any licensed social workers at all, as reported by the Kansas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. In an August 2020 report, the group stated that of the 1,755 licensed specialist clinical social workers in Kansas, only 83 worked in western Kansas, creating “mental health deserts.”
As a result, residents must drive great distances for care, endure long waits for appointments with mental health providers, rely on area emergency departments, or forgo care.
Participants are not the only ones suffering because of the shortage of social workers, Boyd points out. So are the social workers themselves. Many are working extra shifts to cover for staffing shortages, while they also face the impact the pandemic has had on their own lives.
“This is starting to affect providers on the front line,” she says. “It’s disheartening as a provider if you see people go into crisis because they can’t get in for care.”
Boyd is addressing these challenges through two new programs developed by the CCEC, the Resiliency Based Clinical Supervision course and the Social Work Rural Resilience Network. Boyd leads both programs, giving her the opportunity to wed two of her passions: workforce development and professional training. She is a master trainer for the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network and also provides continuing education opportunities through CCEC.
Both programs aim to provide rural social workers with the skills and support they need to avoid burnout as they do their life-changing work. “Social workers deserve to be happy and healthy and have what they need to do their jobs. I want them to feel like they can have joy in their lives, which comes from the work they do and the life they live outside of work,” Boyd explains. “If providers have that, and they are supported and engaging in behaviors that build their resilience, that will translate into better outcomes for participants.”
The Resiliency Based Clinical Supervision CEU Certificate program launched in May 2022 equips supervisors to provide the training and support their staff needs to not only improve patient outcomes, but also thrive in their jobs.
“A lot of people don’t have training to provide clinical supervision,” Boyd points out. “The benefit of this course is that people can feel more prepared to really provide that supervision and support in an effort to improve patient outcomes and retention of employees.”
Designed for all clinical supervisors, not just those serving in rural areas, the course includes three sessions held live via Zoom. Participants earn a certificate in Clinical Supervision and 24 continuing education units for completing course.
Register on the School of Social Welfare CCEC webpage for more information, contact Robin Nelson at nelsonr@ku.edu.
The Social Work Rural Resilience Network, begun in the summer of 2022, serves to connect, support and educate social workers in rural and frontier areas, helping them build resiliency so they can bounce back from adversity, as well as thrive in their practice and in their lives.
“One of the driving factors of building the Resilience Network is to provide support and connection for providers. One of the biggest things I see, in research and in talking with people, is that they miss connection,” Boyd says. “I felt like we needed something that helped people be connected, even if they live hundreds of miles away from each other.”
To participate in the network, contact Boyd at christinab@ku.edu.
