Antonette “Toni” Navarro, a Santa Barbara native, was appointed as Director of the Santa Barbara County Behavioral Wellness Department in November 2021. Toni is deeply committed to behavioral health, public service and collaboration. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) with 30 years in clinical outpatient services. Bringing her passion for the work and experience in the field to her community gives her a profound sense of purpose and motivation. Toni says, “Every day I am so excited to get to work, despite the challenges, which primarily includes the scope and pace of the work–Santa Barbara is twice the size jurisdiction population-wise and several times larger geographically than where I have ever worked in my career.”
Toni’s entire professional career has been connected to the county behavioral health system in California. Like many who pursue a degree in marriage and family therapy (MFT), she originally thought a private or group practice for kids and families would be her path. Then, in the second year of her MFT practicum experience she signed on with an agency in Santa Barbara, CALM—the Child Abuse Listening Mediation. The person who ran the organization was an amazing LCSW who taught Toni so much about the value and importance of trauma-work with those most under-resourced in the community. Toni was hooked.
Along her journey, Toni has met many fellow LCSWs who have inspired her and influenced how she does the work and evolved as a leader. But the person who had the biggest impact on her was the first client she ever saw in her first-year practicum at the UCSB Community Clinic. “She was a woman, my age at the time, recently released from incarceration and working hard to get custody of her kids back,” recalls Toni. “She took one look at me on our first day and laughed and stated there was no way someone who dressed/looked like me (all buttoned up in my 1984 preppy-best!) could understand or help her, but she was ‘stuck’ with me…so she was going to do her best! She taught me about true empathy, listening, and alerted me to ALL the ways systems in our society disproportionally do not serve people, create disparities and contribute to trauma through generations.”
Toni currently serves as President of the California Social Work Education Center’s Advisory Board, and her first priority is to continue to uplift the value and purpose of the Social Work profession. Another priority is to expand the reach of clinical social work into the county behavioral health system.
“The breadth of education and level of training and the complex experience that social workers receive aligns well in serving those who are in need of specialty mental health services,” says Toni. “My hope is that this will be accomplished through legislative action and funding that promotes the development of the clinical social work workforce in California. Finally, what I hope to accomplish while in office is to bring more awareness about CalSWEC to county behavioral directors and create sustainable actions that will ensure closer collaboration and workforce development programming among county behavioral health agencies, statewide MSW programs and CalSWEC.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many lives, but Toni believes that the silver lining resulting from the health crisis is that it brought more awareness to why mental health matters. “Great news—as it has led to increased funding from the State, and growing numbers of legislative priorities for behavioral health to focus on that also bring funding opportunities,” states Toni. “The not-so-good news is our profession is in a serious workforce crisis with agencies across the state having sustained vacancy rates of 30-40%.”
“The other side of the crisis coin is opportunity, and probably more specifically innovation and ingenuity,” continues Toni. “So one way we are coping with the impacts is to empower staff, community partners, clients and county residents to think outside our traditional contract boxes about what works in bringing healing and overall wellness to communities and looking to transform what it means to do the work of ‘therapy’ and ‘treatment’.”
Bringing healing and wellness to others also requires taking care of oneself. When Toni talks about self-care, she is “referring to activities that replenish my inspiration and motivation ‘reservoirs’–staying in contact with the people we serve and the staff who do the ground level work within our system.” Another way that Toni takes care of herself as a professional is by staying on top of information that will help her do her job–podcasts and books she would listen to/read/then re-listen and re-read as needed about leadership and best practices in community healing and health care.
Moving back to Santa Barbara closer to her larger network of family and friends has been a HUGE self-care boost for Toni. Born and raised in Santa Barbara, as were both of her parents, and all of her grandparents moved to the city as children or young adults, Toni has deep roots here and she is so happy to be home. She walks everywhere in Santa Barbara, and has even taken up writing poetry since the start of Covid. Another Total Guilty Pleasure: Binging great shows on streaming platforms–recent favorites inlcude Bosch, Only Murders in the Building, and Grace and Frankie!
When asked if she has any parting words of wisdom for the MSW students who are entering the behavioral health field, Toni says, “Stay engaged in learning and sharing your experiences with others via professional groups, consultation groups, or your alumni associations. Having colleagues and friends in the field and getting together to share not only difficulties you face in the work, but the hope (and ironically the humor you also experience!) is critical to longevity in the field. Consider leadership and mentorship—the profession and your community need you!”
