Virginia Beach offers incentives to hire and retain healthcare workers

The city of Virginia Beach is now offering one-time incentives of $1,000 to help behavioral and mental healthcare providers hire and retain workers. Leaders in the field said that the demand for mental health services has risen rapidly during the pandemic, outpacing the number of nurses and specialists who care for people. This has led to significant staffing shortages. 

Kurt Hooks, CEO at Virginia Beach Psychiatric Center said, "We need workers in as many behavioral health spaces as possible." He also added that nurses, mental health technicians and clinical service providers who are therapists are much needed at behavioral healthcare centers across the city. 

Hooks says, "We talked about healthcare heroes for two years now, and I know it’s become maybe a little bit of a tired term, but in reality, we want to be able to reward those individuals and say, 'This work is more important now than ever." 

Source: 13 News Now