Federal Grant to Fund Internship Training, Expand Behavioral Health Services in Underserved Areas of Nebraska

The Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) (www.unmc.edu/bhecn) and the Munroe-Meyer Institute (MMI) were recently awarded a $300,000 grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to fund internship training for clinical counselors to address the behavioral health needs of children, adolescents and families in underserved areas of Nebraska.

Through BHECN and MMI, the Nebraska Counseling Internship Collaborative was created, including Chadron State College, University of Nebraska at Kearney, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and Wayne State College. The one-year grant will support stipends for 21 counseling interns from these four graduate counseling programs. This marks the first collaboration of the four master’s level counseling programs in the state to coordinate interdisciplinary training.

The goal is to expand the behavioral health workforce and the diversity of licensed counselors in the state who are trained to work with children and adolescents in underserved communities, in particular rural, frontier and inner-city areas.

Interns will be placed in already established integrated behavioral health care clinics in rural and urban underserved areas, providing exposure to working with pediatricians, psychologists, nurses and family practitioners. They also will have an opportunity to develop competencies in working with rural and minority cultures. Through distance learning, interns will complete a series of learning modules on telehealth practices and integrated behavioral health care. Interns are projected to participate in more than 4,500 patient sessions during this program.

Students interested in applying for the internship may contact program coordinator, Laura Holly at laura.holly@unmc.edu.