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HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Education & Training Program

As an MSW student, earn a $10,000 stipend through the HRSA training program and gain a high quality, culturally informed, experiential and didactic training, focusing on racial, ethnic, Sexual and Gender Minority (SGMY) youth and young adults.

Overview

The HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Education & Training Program is an interdisciplinary, integrated primary care training of graduate social work (MSW), psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP), psychiatric Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and doctoral psychology students. HRSA awarded ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ over $1.9 million to support the development of a unique, highly specialized interprofessional training program that will provide trainees from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, the School of Nursing and the MetroHealth Psychology Residency Program, with high quality, culturally informed, experiential and didactic training, focusing on racial, ethnic, Sexual and Gender Minority (SGMY) youth and young adults.

The proposed project will build on and enhance existing partnerships to train a well-qualified behavioral health workforce to address critical behavioral health needs in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Using the expertise of ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ faculty, we will provide the didactics and resources necessary to create innovative training experiences, while an expansive network of eight community behavioral health and integrated primary care organizations will provide experiential training. 

Goals of the Integrated Behavioral Health Workforce & Training Program

1. Utilize a phased approach to increase the number, quality and scope of training positions focused on developing competency in evidence-based behavioral health prevention and treatment services for children, youth and transitional age youth in high need, high demand areas;
2. Enhance didactics and interdisciplinary, integrated BH/primary care community based experiential training focused on evidence-based services to address complex factors contributing to improved mental health treatment outcomes and
3. Improve behavioral health workforce capacity to effectively prevent, identify and treat BH disorders by: 
   1. Increasing the quality, scope and availability of interdisciplinary student training experiences in high need areas;
   2. Expanding the diversity of the workforce to better represent and serve communities that lack access to care; and 
   3. Providing technical support, consultation and direct training to current primary care, BH providers and placement supervisors in partner organizations. 

Outcomes of the project include

1. Train a total of 111 students (85 graduate MSW, 19 PMHNP, 4 DNP, 3 doctoral psychology) in interdisciplinary and integrated primary care settings to provide comprehensive services to address behavioral health needs in children, adolescents and transitional age youth ; 
2. Develop trainee competencies around evidence-supported prevention and treatment modalities used in interdisciplinary and integrated practices to address behavioral health disorders; 
3. Increase trainee knowledge, competency and skills in identifying and addressing factors that impact behavioral health treatment outcomes; and 
4. Increase ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ faculty and partner organization provider expertise around evidence supported prevention and treatment modalities and capacity to identify and effectively address barriers to behavioral health treatment success within our community. 

For more program information, please contact Mandel School faculty member and principal investigator, Amy Korsch-Williams at amy.korsch@case.edu.