Payer-Provider Partnership to Identify Successful Retention Strategies for the Behavioral Health Workforce.

Background: High staff turnover rates are a burden for behavioral health providers because they may negatively impact staff morale, quality of care, and clinical outcomes as well as increase costs. The Staff Assessment and Retention (STAR) Project is a partnership between a behavioral health managed care organization and community-based providers designed to: 1) share information on research-based approaches, 2) identify strategies that providers find successful yet feasible, and 3) develop a learning community around research-based, community-informed strategies to increase staff retention.

Methods: Participants from 87 community-based behavioral health providers completed a survey about successful strategies and barriers to staff retention, current retention and turnover rates, and ratings of commonly used strategies supported by research.