Research Centers

Nearly one-fifth of the adult US population is estimated to have a diagnosable mental illness. Mental and emotional well-being is essential to overall health, yet serious challenges exist in providing needed behavioral health care services to the population, and mental health disparities persist among minority and vulnerable populations.

Established in September 2015, the Behavioral Health Workforce Research Center aims to strengthen the workforce responsible for prevention and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders by conducting studies to inform workforce development and planning efforts. The Center is housed at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and works with a national consortium of partners and experts in mental health, substance abuse, and health workforce research.

Created in 2013, the Carolina Health Workforce Research Center (CHWRC) is 1 of 7 national health workforce research centers funded through a cooperative agreement with the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis within the Bureau of Health Workforce at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The Center is comprised of investigators from a broad array of disciplines and also seeks input and expertise from an external advisory board.

CHWRC’s mission is to conduct and disseminate timely, policy-relevant research on the flexible use of healthcare workers to improve the quality and efficiency of health care. The development of a more flexible and nimble healthcare workforce is crucial to delivering high value care in our rapidly changing healthcare environment.

Established in 2013, the George Washington (GW) Health Workforce Research Center (HWRC), under the GW Health Workforce Institute based at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., is 1 of 7 centers that collects, analyzes, and reports data on the health workforce. The HWRCs are supported through a cooperative agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and managed by the Bureau of Health Professions’ National Center for Health Workforce Analysis. The Centers’ aim is to produce policy-oriented research that will help inform public policy making at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as at the health system level.

The GW HWRC focuses specifically on the novel and flexible use of workers to improve health care delivery and efficiency. Because skill-mix strategies are embedded in broader system change, research findings tend to be highly contextual and difficult to generalize. As a result, we are committed to building a program of research that employs a shared framework across projects (rather than one-off studies) in order to build an evidence base in a modular fashion. The GW HWRC produces multiple research studies per year, as well as several short turn around policy briefs on topics of interest to HRSA.

An available, competent, and well distributed workforce is required to assure access to needed oral health services. The key goals of the Oral Health Workforce Research Center (OHWRC) are to provide timely, accurate data and conduct policy relevant research to assist in workforce planning for oral health services.

OHWRC is based at the Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) at the School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York. OHWRC was formed as a partnership between CHWS and the Healthforce Center at the University of California, San Francisco. It is funded through a cooperative agreement with the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis of the US Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). CHWS is 1 of 7 health workforce research centers in the country, and the only HRSA-sponsored center with a unique focus on the oral health workforce.

The UCSF Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care (UCSF HWRC) based at the University of California, San Francisco is a dynamic hub of policy-oriented research and investigation, established through support from the US Bureau of the Health Professions. The mission is to help answer the essential question: Is our health care workforce prepared to meet the growing long-term care needs of the aging US population?

As baby boomers enter their mid 60s (the “silver tsunami”), an increasing proportion of Americans will require long-term care (LTC), both at home and in the community. The Center will closely examine the health care workforce and help shape policies to meet expanding LTC needs. Our expertise in understanding how the complex LTC workforce contributes to improving access, increasing quality, and attaining high-value health care is a key component of our work. Over the next several years, we will conduct sponsored research on LTC labor market developments, outcomes and impacts of employment and training policies, and report on LTC labor trends.

The University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies (UW CHWS) was established in 1998 with funding from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). It is housed in the Research Section of the Department of Family Medicine in the University of Washington School of Medicine. UW CHWS received funding from the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis at HRSA to be one of seven Health Workforce Research Centers (HWRCs) across the US. Each HWRC focuses on a specific aspect of the health workforce. UW HWRC is addressing the allied health workforce.