Optimizing the Role of Military Behavioral Health Technicians: A Survey of Behavioral Health Technicians and Mental Health Providers.

Behavioral health technicians (BHTs), who are enlisted service members with the technical training to work alongside licensed mental health providers (MHPs), are an important part of the Military Health System (MHS) workforce. However, each service branch has different training requirements for BHTs, making it difficult to identify common qualifications across the BHT workforce and ensure that the MHS is making the best use of their skills. Building on prior RAND research that found inconsistencies in how BHTs were integrated across the force, researchers conducted what might be the largest survey to date of BHTs and MHPs. The results provide insights on BHTs' practice patterns, training and supervisory needs, and job satisfaction, as well as barriers to better integrating BHTs into clinical practice and steps that the MHS could take to optimize BHTs' contributions to the health and readiness of the force. Posing parallel sets of questions to BHTs and MHPs allowed comparisons of these groups' perspectives on these topics. The results revealed differences in views by service branch, time in practice, deployment history, and other characteristics. The researchers drew on these findings and recommendations to identify opportunities to optimize the BHT role.