Lipscomb University receives grant to help provide mental health and substance use disorder support in Tennessee

The Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Lipscomb University has recently been awarded a $1.65 million grant from the Health Resources Services Administration, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The grant will be used with the goal of improving mental health services in Middle Tennessee by spending the funds on the training of healthcare and behavioral health workers to address the needs of the community that are currently going unmet.

The grant money will fund Lipscomb’s new Healthcare Professionals Certificate Training program that is set up to provide a total of fifty students with full tuition so that they can complete a graduate Certificate in Substance Use Disorder Treatment.

In an article posted on Lipscomb University’s website, the director of the school’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling program, lead faculty for the CMHC addiction specialization, and the director of the new program DeAndrea N. Witherspoon Nash was quoted about the grant, saying, “Through this grant we will equip professionals with the tools they need to make an impact in this critical area of mental health care. I am thankful that through this grant we will increase the number of mental health and healthcare practitioners providing mental health support as well as substance use disorder prevention, treatment and recovery service. This is an important way we can serve the Nashville community and make a positive impact on the lives of those who need these services the most.” 

Trainees who take part in the Healthcare Professionals Certificate Training program will work to address the unmet substance use disorder and mental health needs of vulnerable and underserved individuals in comprehensive health centers. The program has a focus on children, adolescents, and the emerging adult population in Middle Tennessee. The program is designed for social workers, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and counselors practicing at partnering Federally Qualified Health Centers that offer substance use disorder treatments for underserved populations. 

This new program will provide the necessary training needed to serve a growing need seen in the community by practitioners in some of the most quickly growing healthcare fields. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report from last year, Tennessee saw an overdose mortality rate of 45.6 per 100,000 people in 2020, which is an estimated total of 3,034 deaths based on the state’s population. Last year, 4% of Tennessee’s youth population and 7.2% of Tennessee’s adult population became diagnosed with substance use disorder. Tennessee ranked eighth highest in the country for rates of youth with alcohol dependence and illicit drug use, according to Mental Health America data published back in 2018. Almost 10% of people aged 12 or older were diagnosed with substance use disorder in Davidson and its surrounding counties, which totals around 111,000 people. Davidson county specifically has seen a 31.8% increase in fatal drug overdoses, and a 40.4% increase in nonfatal overdoses between 2019 and 2020 according to a Metro Public Health Department of Nashville/Davidson County, Tennessee report from 2021.

It is possible to complete the certificate program in one year, and is a three course substance addiction specialization curriculum that is in a CACREP accredited clinical mental health counseling program. Students who take part in the program will enroll in two group supervision courses that will be led by an instructor. The group supervision will happen alongside the summer and fall courses. The first group of 10 students will start the program in January of next year.

Lipscomb’s Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling addiction specialization is being enhanced by this new program. Lipscomb is also the only Christian, CACREP-accredited university in the south that is offering this type of program. The goal is to make a difference on the front lines in the fight against substance use disorder. Witherspoon Nash said the grant will be able to fund the creation of a Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Prevention conference for trainees in addition to its ability to develop other developmental programming for professionals and practitioners. 

This grant is the fourth of its type that Lipscomb has received, and all of these HRSA grants have been used for programs developed by the Department of Psychology, Counseling, and Family Services, which is a part of the University’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. Back in 2017, the department won a $1.8 million Behavioral Health Initiative grant that was used to train education and behavioral health workers in an integrated approach to meet the mental health needs of those they serve. In 2018, the program received $400,000 more in funding to fight the opioid epidemic. In 2021, the program received a renewal grant of $1.36 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Those grants were based on project proposals put forth by Douglas Ribeiro, who serves as the lead faculty for Lipscomb’s Initiative for Behavioral Health Integration as well as the chair of the Department of Psychology, Counseling, and Family Science.

Witherspoon Nash will be administering this new HRSA award. The program is completely funded by federal funds. The five year initiative will dole out the total amount of $1,654,121. This grant has brought total funding for the department up to $5.2 million over the last six years.

The Department of Psychology, Counseling, and Family Science at Lipscomb University offers undergraduate programs in family science and psychology as well as graduate programs in family therapy, marriage therapy, psychology, and clinical mental health counseling. More information about the department can be found here.

More information about Lipscomb University in general can be found at the school’s website.