Counselor Education and School Psychology Program’s Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Grant 2017
The Counselor Education and School Psychology programs were awarded a $1.9 million HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Grant for a four-year period (2017-2021). In addition, the programs received a Supplemental grant of $400,000 for a two-year period. With the Supplemental grant, the programs are partnering with three Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) who were each awarded $400,000 to support interns at their sites. Both grants provide a $10,000 stipend to the programs’ internship students. The grants provide funding to students and faculty for professional development, and to support the programs’ in offering additional training and workshops to students, professionals, and the larger community throughout the State of New Hampshire and the New England region.
Grant Narrative Summary
The primary goal of this project is to increase Plymouth State University’s (PSU) master’s level training programs for clinical mental health counselors, school counselors, and school psychologists. Together as an interdisciplinary team, we are expanding the behavioral health workforce in rural and medically underserved areas in order to better serve individuals across the lifespan who have developed or are at risk for developing a behavioral health disorder. Our primary objectives include: 1) expanding the behavioral health care workforce, 2) providing inter-professional training and integration of care among behavioral health and primary care providers, 3) increasing the supervisory workforce, 4) providing parent/caregiver supportive training, 5) developing and supporting an interdisciplinary care model to address substance misuse in NH, 6) providing quality integrated behavioral and primary care for refugees, 7) supporting interns working in prison settings to increase quality behavioral health services, 8) implementing comprehensive social-emotional learning program in NH schools, 9) collaborating with NH universities to create a databank of NH stakeholders (i.e., individuals, communities, grant recipients, and agencies) who are involved in supporting behavioral health in NH, and 10) educating program interns on using an integrative system of care approach in their professions.
Through Year Three we continue to explore and establish integrative care field site placements for interns. Faculty and students have attended and presented at national and local conferences and have promoted our programs and professions to undergraduate students through class presentations. We continue to collaborate with and support area public schools to implement universal screenings for social and emotional learning competencies and have started a partnership with a local high school to address the culture and climate at the school and behavioral health support for at-risk high school students. Our grant work supports professional development opportunities for university students and members of the professional community. We had planned to sponsor a Supervision Institute, a workshop titled, “Empathic Resilience”, and a five-day Recovery Coach Academy. Our trainings are open to PSU students, staff, and interested professionals. We supported NARCAN training for the PSU community and placement of NARCAN in every building on the PSU campus. The NARCAN is stored with the AED in each building. Due to COVID-19 we had to cancel the Supervision Institute. We will offer the training Summer 2021.
During Year 3 of our BHWET 2017 and Supplemental grants, we supported 31 interns working in the fields of clinical mental health counseling, school counseling, and school psychology with a $10,000 stipend.
