Flourishing. Fulfilled. Effective.
A revolutionized behavioral health workforce starts here.
If you're working in behavioral health, you've probably noticed the problem.
The behavioral health field is in a crisis of burnout, disengagement, and ineffectiveness that harms workers, increases turnover, and reduces the quality of services people receive.
Walden WELL directly improves the workforce experiences of Maryland behavioral health professionals and provides resources nationally to increase their wellbeing, promote a sense of meaning and purpose in their work, and improve service quality to build healthy, thriving communities.
Maryland has the potential to be a national leader in addressing behavioral health workforce challenges. Walden WELL emphasizes workforce wellbeing, meaning, purpose, professional development, and adequate supervision because research shows that these are the ingredients for a workforce that is flourishing, fulfilled, and effective.
The WELL Framework
A flourishing, fulfilled, and effective workforce requires enhanced individual Wellbeing to thrive in challenging work, greater Engagement with work and others to promote a sense of meaning and purpose, and Learning for professional development that improves services and reduces burnout. It takes Leadership to make it all happen and provide the competent supervision workers need to feel supported and perform at their best.
Wellbeing
Balanced nutrition, physical activity, time in nature, adequate sleep and other self-care practices are protective factors that build resilience for stressful work.
Engagement
Connections with others, room to shape the way the job is done, and opportunities to see the positive impact of their efforts keep workers energized and motivated.
Learning
Competence is a core psychological need and a key ingredient in service quality. Well-crafted adult learning experiences offer opportunities to learn, practice, and receive feedback.
Leadership
Adequate supervision is critical to reduce burnout, and leaders have the power to change workplace cultures to emphasize wellbeing, engagement, and learning.
What does research say we can do to build a thriving behavioral health workforce?
Toward a Flourishing, Fulfilled, and Effective Behavioral Health Workforce: Research-Based Strategies for Preventing and Mitigating Professional Distress in Addiction and Mental Health Work offers empirically-based strategies that support substance use disorder and mental health professionals at the individual, organizational, and systems levels.
About Us
Walden WELL is a Maryland non-profit program dedicated to revolutionizing the behavioral health workforce. Walden WELL builds on the legacy of behavioral health workforce investment embodied by its parent organization, Walden Sierra, to promote and implement research-based strategies that make behavioral health workers thrive.
Mission
Walden WELL advances science-informed strategies to ensure a flourishing, fulfilled and effective behavioral health workforce.
Vision
We envision a revolutionized behavioral health workforce.
Theory of Change
If we cultivate employee experiences that emphasize wellbeing, engagement, learning, and leadership, we will have a flourishing, fulfilled, and effective behavioral health workforce, and Maryland communities will thrive.
Core Values
- Wellbeing, for both staff and clients, is more than just the absence of disease and disorder; it includes physical and emotional health, meaning and purpose, relationships and community, and opportunities to achieve their potential.
- Leaders may be in formal leadership roles or situated by aptitude, influence, or position to implement and sustain needed organizational changes.
- Interventions and strategies for behavioral health workforce wellbeing should be based on empirical research.
- Behavioral health professionals must be equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively perform their roles; lived experience provides insight and connection, but clinical work should be performed by those with clinical training.
- Behavioral health professionals may derive great meaning from their work, and they deserve to work in organizations that promote their development to effectively carry out their callings.
- Adversity is a fact of life not only for people served by behavioral health providers, but also the providers themselves. Organizational practices should build resilience in all stakeholders to buffer against trauma and other distress and bolster protective factors.
- Organizations and individuals possess tremendous strengths that can be harnessed for the common good.
- The employee experience begins during the application phase and continues beyond the formal end of the employment relationship.
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Who We Are
Kathleen O'Brien, PhD
Tracey Myers-Preston, MS
Mark O'Brien, JD, MAPP
What We Do
Research and Translation
Training and Consultation
