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Nursing Partnership Provides Critical Client Care While Strengthening Workforce

Through our new partnership with UCSF, Edgewood is training psychiatric nurse practitioner students to care for clients and their families from high-need communities. Here, UCSF Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) Candidate Janielle Lee takes her 11-year-old client’s blood pressure and spends time engaged in activities and conversation to gauge development of psychosocial skills at Edgewood’s Office in San Francisco’s Bayview District. The girl and her grandmother are also participating in Edgewood’s Kinship Program, which supports older caregivers who step in to care for a relative child who is unable to live with bio-parents. Sitting across from her is Edgewood’s PMHNP Sandra Ramos, who supervises the nursing candidates and provides mental health care for clients and families as they recover from trauma and return to pursuing their life goals.Made possible by a 2-year, $1.25 million grant from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the program places psychiatric nurse practitioner students in high-need areas of San Francisco and San Mateo County that have limited access to quality mental health services. About to complete its first year, the program is working toward its goal of partnering with other health non-profits to provide more than 20 new nursing trainees and more than 10,000 hours of professional training and client care by the end of Year 2.Researchers estimate that by 2028, California will have 50% fewer psychiatrists and 28% fewer psychologists than will be needed, even as the need is projected to grow, especially among vulnerable, low-income populations and populations of color. This mental health workforce program is designed to help address these needs. Each year, Edgewood trains at least 1% of the child psychiatrists graduating in the U.S. through its partnership with UCSF’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Supervising both projects is Edgewood’s Medical Director Dr. Robin Randall.If you would like to make a donation to support this program, click here.