In response to urgent student mental health needs across Virginia’s college campuses, the 2022 Virginia General Assembly appropriated funds to support a two-year mental health workforce pilot program at public institutions of higher education. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), in consultation with the Virginia Health Care Foundation (VHCF), is charged with administering this pilot program.

On November 7, 2022, SCHEV and VHCF awarded Higher Education Mental Health Workforce Pilot grants to six universities: Christopher Newport, George Mason, James Madison, Longwood, Radford and Virginia Tech. Pilot awards ranged from approximately $66,000 to $100,000 per year per institution to support the salaries and benefits for graduates pursuing licensure to provide therapy under supervision at student health or counseling centers on campus. In exchange, each hosting institution will hire, train and supervise the licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) or licensed professional counselor (LPC) candidates until licensed.

The mental health workforce pilot serves a dual purpose for higher education institutions. The pilot seeks to: 1) expand mental health services to students on campus at higher education institutions; and simultaneously 2) increase the mental health workforce pipeline by offering supervised clinical hours for the LCSW and LPC candidates who delivered those services to become licensed. The mental health pilot’s two-pronged purpose addresses immediate student demand for services and long-term campus behavioral health workforce development, both of which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

The pilot is approximately one and a half years into implementation. SCHEV is satisfied with the progress. Specifically, improving the ability to meet the student demand for counseling/social work services and stabilizing/reducing burnout of LPC and LCSW staff at the student health/counseling centers. Several key findings from the pilot, some recurring and some new along with recommendations from SCHEV, have emerged for the General Assembly’s consideration.

1. The pilot program is oversubscribed. Of the 10 institutions that applied, funding was available to support pilot programs at only six institutions with $500,000 in appropriated funds in FY 2023 and $500,000 in FY 2024. With flat-funding in the 2025-26 budget, staff anticipate that demand/request for funding for the next call for proposals will again exceed the budget allotment. Such oversubscription limits assessment of the pilot program’s impact due to a small sample size.

2. Participating institutions continue to see tangible impacts. As of May 1, 2024, seven LCSW/LPC candidates supported through this pilot have collectively served 630 individual student-patients and completed more than 4,486 clinical hours. The addition of the candidates has resulted in: (a) decreased appointment wait times for students; (b) improved staff morale at the on-campus counseling and health centers; and (c) sparked the candidates’ interest in continuing to work at the higher education institution(s) post-licensure.

3. Due to the timeline of the pilot RFP release, the six pilot institutions were notified of their awards in November 2022 and consequently did not bring on candidates until the winter/spring 2023. Should this program continue and scale, the proposal and award cycle should support award notification in the spring/summer for optimal candidate selection and hiring before the start of the academic year.

4. Data collected from the pilot sites every six months informs modifications to the FY 2025-2026 call for proposals to ensure objectives are achieved.