University of Minnesota Duluth bolstering local supply of social workers

DULUTH — The University of Minnesota Duluth is boosting the Arrowhead region's aging and sparse social work labor force thanks to a federal grant.

UMD's social work department received a third round of federal funding recently to recruit its graduate students — which make up the largest graduate program on campus — to a program focused on mental health and youth, preparing them to work with Native Americans and other underserved groups in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Social workers provide most of the state's mental health services, and only 9% of them are employed in the Arrowhead region, said Lake Dziengel, director of the university's Providing Advanced Clinical Training grant. Nearly half of that workforce is over age 45.

The first two grants helped send nearly 70 clinical behavioral health social workers into the area's workforce, armed with special skills. The third grant for $900,000 will train another 48 over four years.

"There's such a scarcity of rural mental health services," Dziengel said. "Our graduates get hired pretty quickly."

Students enrolled in the program receive $10,000 stipends during their internships, and money for licensing fees and transportation. Program graduates are "strongly encouraged" to work in the region for two years.

Sandra Dantes worked for Duluth's Northwood Children's Services when she graduated. Prior to the graduate program she was involved in work to reduce the recidivism rate of incarcerated Native American youth.

"I understood long ago the need for interventions, especially in rural areas," she said. "The program highlighted the diverse populations within the Arrowhead region, asking for commitment but explaining the need for it. People in rural areas don't have access to resources."

Poverty is a focus of the program, because large percentages of the region's kids live below the poverty line. Students also collaborate with the U's Duluth campus medical and pharmacy schools for a better understanding of mental health treatments, offering a more holistic view of their clients.

"We are training [students] who are thinking about all those elements," Dziengel said.

Duluth resident Pete Butz is currently enrolled in the program and expects to live and work in the city permanently. The social work shortage can partly be blamed on rural providers being asked to do more with less, and the geographic distances between clients, he said.

But with telehealth playing a larger role in care since the onset of the pandemic, that may become less of an issue. The ability to have a virtual session with a social worker can mean more patients have access to their services, Butz said.

"UMD saw the need to generate locally grown clinical social workers," he said. "I believe we're in a changing tide of meeting the local demand."