Report of recommendations: the Annapolis Coalition Conference on Behavioral Health Work Force Competencies.

In May 2004, the Annapolis Coalition on Behavioral Health Workforce Education convened a national meeting on the identification and assessment of competencies. The Conference on Behavioral Health Workforce Competencies brought leading consumer and family advocates together with other experts on competencies from diverse disciplines and specialties in the fields of both mental health care and substance use disorders treatment. Aided by experts on competency development in business and medicine, conference participants have generated 10 consensus recommendations to guide the future development of workforce competencies in behavioral health.

Workforce competencies in behavioral health: an overview.

Competency-based training approaches are being used more in healthcare to guide curriculum content and ensure accountability and outcomes in the educational process. This article provides an overview of the state of competency development in the field of behavioral health. Specifically, it identifies the groups and organizations that have conducted and supported this work, summarizes their progress in defining and assessing competencies, and discusses both the obstacles and future directions for such initiatives.