Two schools on Vancouver Island have received funding from the province to train community mental health workers.
The provincial government announced Monday, that they are investing $800,000 across four public post-secondary institutions — including Vancouver Island University and Camosun College — to train community mental health workers through a new education and training program.
Selkirk College in Castlegar and Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in Burnaby were also selected by the province.
“Government is working on ways to help B.C. recover from the impacts of COVID-19. This includes enabling people to retrain or upskill in innovative programs, or receive essential on-the-job training for high-demand jobs, such as community mental health workers,” Anne Kang, minister of advanced education and skills training, said in a press release.
Vancouver Island University received funding for 16 seats for the program while Camosun College received funding for 20 seats. Specific dollar figures for each school were not disclosed by the province in their release.
“Training health-care workers to provide essential mental health and substance use services is vital to building our system of mental health care, and Vancouver Island University continues to be a leader in this area,” added Sheila Malcolmson, minister of mental health and addictions.
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