Behavioral health ranked among the top five health issues in all communities we serve. Aurora Psychiatric Hospital (APH) is the hub for Aurora’s comprehensive behavioral health services team, which extends behavioral health care into hospital and primary care settings across Aurora’s footprint. We continually push to expand and extend our ability to provide access points with multiple inpatient locations, hospital-based outpatient department locations, ambulatory clinic locations, and approximately 200 professional staff throughout Eastern Wisconsin.
Behavioral health professional shortages are a national, state, and local issue. Efforts to recruit, train and retain providers are necessary to increase the numbers of providers available to community members. 
Offering continuing education ensures that each provider’s practice is current, aids in the development of contact with other behavioral health professionals, provides information about the health system, and enhances self-efficacy. To address this in 2019:
11 evidenced-based continuing education programs and 5 intensive workshops were provided with 574 attendees.
3 Aurora medical center RN’s were trained through an immersion program on working with behavioral health patients.
100 Aurora providers were trained in Verbal Defense and Influence on how to manage aggressive behavior.
120 primary care providers and support staff were trained on working with behavioral health patients.
6 continuing education lectures were held with 124 local high school, middle school, and elementary school professionals attending.
Additionally, to address the growing behavioral health needs of Aurora’s patient populations and increase access for community members, we hired, employed, and trained 12 new behavioral health providers in 2019.