The grant will support the university’s new Behavioral Healthcare through InterProfessional Training initiative.
The University of Tennessee Chattanooga has received a $2.4 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, which is a federal agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program for Professionals. The grant, which will run for four years, will support the university’s newly established “Behavioral Healthcare through InterProfessional Training,” or B-HIP, initiative.
The lead principal investigator for the project is UC Foundation Professor Elizabeth O’Brien, who serves as the director of the university’s School of Professional Studies. Also present on the project’s team are Kevin Doyle, mental health counseling program coordinator and counselor education program director; Alexandra Frank, school counseling program coordinator; Amy Doolittle, master of social work program director; Bethany Womack, associate professor of social work; and Amanda J. Hardin, school psychology program director.
B-HIP will work to address the region’s behavioral health disparities by creating a pipeline of qualified, trained behavioral health professionals who are prepared to work in underserved areas of Southeast Tennessee, including 11 separate counties. The initiative will see the university working with eight community partner organizations to expand student training opportunities to help improve behavioral health outcomes in the region.
According to an article on the University of Tennessee Chattanooga’s website, O’Brien is quoted as saying, “To our knowledge, UTC has never received this type of grant for behavioral health, which makes it really, really exciting. We live in an area where we have a lack of mental health providers in general, but in particular for our rural folks, there is a real lack of opportunity and services for mental health care.” She added, “Part of this grant was being able to support our hardworking students. At UTC, we work with a lot of first-generation college students who then subsequently become first-generation graduate students. This grant creates an opportunity to find them scholarships during that internship year when they really can’t work for pay because they’re working full time in the agencies that they’re serving.”
Students from multiple departments will be involved in B-HIP, including graduate students from programs like social work, clinical counseling, school counseling, and school psychology. These students will be selected to work in special traineeships that will see them placed at partner sites, attending conferences, and receiving mentorships.
Additionally, the grant funding will allow for the creation of a digital learning library accessible by students of all disciplines, even those outside of the programs that have received grant funding, and enhanced supervisor training.
Dr. Valerie Rutledge, who serves as the dean of the College of Health, Education and Professional Studies, said of the grant funding, “I think one of the things that we have seen over the last few years is the focus on interprofessional education, which means this grant and many of the new kinds of programs that we’re working on involve multiple departments that have skill sets that complement each other. Each one of them brings a unique set of background and information to the perspective that they’re going to provide. The combination of the programs are what you might find yourself working right beside in a workplace. Whether it’s in a health care organization or a school setting, the fact that you go out into these professions and you don’t work alone is something that this project is a perfect example of.”
For more information about the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, visit the school’s website.