Workforce

• Launching an internship consortium in 2023 to train the next generation of clinical psychologists.
• Partnering with Augustana University (Sioux Falls) to train future Integrated Health Therapists for working with patients in primary care settings
• Sponsoring trainees in social work and professional counseling as they transition into Sanford employment.
• Partnering with Iris Telehealth to hire four social workers and one psychiatrist to offer direct-to-consumer services as part of the Sanford Virtual Care Initiative

Access

• Adding a full-time behavioral health therapist to the Sanford Child’s Voice advocacy center in Sioux Falls.
• Integrating therapists into primary care clinics, including women’s health and children’s specialty in Sioux Falls, urgent care in Fargo, and oncology in Fargo, Bismarck and Bemidji.
• Embedding mental health clinicians in North Dakota schools.

Training

• Offering BeHEARD (Behavioral Health Education, Awareness, and Response Development) training to Sanford employees to increase knowledge, skills and confidence to recognize and respond to a mental health emergency. More than 400 employees have taken the courses.
• Developing a BeHEARD training program for adolescents.

Innovative care delivery

• Implementing artificial intelligence that draws patient data from electronic medical records to determine which patients are likely to have an adverse behavioral health outcome.