Building Career Ladders

BY FAYE S. WOLFE

If the term “workforce development” sounds a little abstract, talk to SSW Assistant Professor Maria Torres, Ph.D., LHMC. To her, it represents a world ripe for investigation and rich in possibilities. Her research into the subject has delved into such fundamental questions as, what are the challenges behavioral health care workers face? And how do we support them?

After earning an M.A. and a Ph.D. in social policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, Torres served as a senior research associate at Heller’s Institute for Behavioral Health. In 2015 she joined the School for Social Work faculty. Having taught in both the research and policy sequences, this summer she will teach a foundationlevel policy course in the M.S.W. program and a dissertation design course in the Ph.D. program. She is supervising nine students on four research practicum projects related to diversity issues or marginalized populations.

Torres loves research. She will tell you, “analyzing data is super-fun” and warn you that she has a tendency to “get into the weeds” talking about a study, but her mind seems to move easily from details to the big picture. How, for example, a CPT (current procedural terminology) billing code can make a critical difference in a clinician’s work life—and a client’s progress toward addiction recovery. Or how an intake form’s wording can discourage or encourage someone to seek treatment.

Besides an analytical mind, Torres brings heart to her work, speaking with feeling, for instance, about a rural detox center struggling to stay afloat and keep clients from sinking back into addiction. “When they lost the physician who could prescribe Suboxone for symptoms of opioid addiction and withdrawal, the nearest place to receive this vital treatment was hours away. The impact on the community was profound.”

For her dissertation, Torres studied the work environment of frontline clinicians in outpatient substance abuse programs, and its impact on quality of care. “Studies often focus on the effectiveness of a new intervention rather than who is doing the interventions or their work conditions,” she said.

Torres zeroed in on workers’ training and background, how they were paid, and what they valued about their work. She explored the pros and cons of fee-for-service payment versus salary, and how that affected clinicians’ job satisfaction and performance. She is still drawing on the findings of that research. In addition, she’s working on research into recovery support navigators in Massachusetts, funded by a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Health Care Innovation Award, and two projects related to substance abuse in Maine, which has one of the highest rates of fatal opioid overdoses in the country.

Fueling her interest in the subject of workforce development is the fact that the contribution of behavioral health workers, like many others providing essential services in our

Assistant Professor Maria Torres, Ph.D., LHMC, meets with Hala Lord, A ’19, and Natali Rauseo- Ricupero, A ’19, in her office.

society, is undervalued. She talked about the rungs of “career ladders”: training, coaching, higher education, promotion. “Often there is no career ladder. They’re on the front line of an epidemic and not paid a living wage. There are treatment successes, but given the nature of addiction, there are also relapses, overdoses and deaths. It’s not work for the faint of heart, and yet they persist.”

Torres noted, “Nurses used to be viewed as the subordinates of doctors. Now nurses are viewed as essential members of a medical team, they have authority, are respected, well-paid…How do we do that for frontline workers? How do we create career ladders, get people more support, more formal training? There is no single answer. It will take a multipronged, multilevel approach.”

Another aspect of workforce development that Torres is studying is the lack of diversity in the field of social work. “Social workers are overwhelmingly cisgender females and overwhelmingly white. That doesn’t reflect the world around us,” said Torres.

At the time, she was sitting in the sunlit Campus Center Café, as students hunched over laptops, professors grabbed a slice and locals stopped in for a latte. “When I enter any space, I scan it to see how diverse the group is. Where are the people of color? Are they the servers? The customers? What are the status markers?” The social scientist was speaking, but then the woman of color added quietly, “It’s a survival skill.”

“This is especially true in a behavioral health setting,” added Torres. “People coming in for care feel vulnerable. They wonder, ‘Is there anyone here who will understand me and my experiences?’”

It’s also true at schools for social work. You could say that Torres is on the front line at SSW, as a woman and a scholar of color whose presence, example, experience and interactions with students can be highly influential.

Torres knows firsthand the value of mentors. “I was incredibly fortunate,” she said about meeting Dr. Margarita Alegría, internationally recognized for her research on disparities in mental health treatment, several years ago. Torres has been a member of Alegría’s research team on various studies.

She also knows the exhilaration that comes from seeing people like ones self doing important work. Torres is originally from Colombia. “I emigrated to the United States when I was 4.” (Before the question could be asked, she said with a smile, “That’s why I don’t have an accent,” as though this was something she was used to explaining.) Her first job after earning her M.A. in psychological counseling from Lesley University was at a Boston-area domestic violence program that offered all its services in English and Spanish.

“It was my first experience working in a place where 95 percent of the people were Latino and 95 percent were women,” Torres said. “It was like, Wow!, a dive into a Latinapowered environment committed to serving the community. It was political, passionate and focused on activism and care.”

So, enthusiastic about teaching, advising and coaching SSW students

in general, she especially wants to support students of color. “I ask if they’ve considered going on to get a Ph.D. Do you have questions, how can I help you so that you don’t feel overwhelmed by the prospect?”

In addition, Torres likes to nudge students’ thinking about the relationship between clinical practice, research and policy.

“Students may not see themselves as researchers, but I tell them that to be a clinician is to be a researcher,” said Torres. A clinician looks to research to guide treatment and operates within a policy context. Torres wants students to consider becoming the researchers whose work informs practice and policy. “I want them to dip their toes into the idea. If they show interest, I try to cultivate it, to encourage them to see themselves as future scholars. I want them to know that they have something important to contribute and, most importantly, that they can do it.”

“It’s my job and my mission to be here, at SSW, honing students’ skills, opening their eyes to possibilities,” Torres said. Then, acknowledging that the conversation had come full circle, she added, “It’s all about the workforce. Smith couldn’t be a better fit for me. I’m so honored to be here working with these students.” ◆