Graduate Psychology Education Programs - The purpose of our program is to expand and strengthen our trainee pool to educate the next generation of mental health and substance use providers to proficiently work with individuals who have serious mental illness, substance use concerns, and/or trauma. Our program proposes to expand and strengthen our collaborative network of care providers. Through in-depth, collaborative, and inter-disciplinary training and experiential opportunities, our trainees will be prepared to serve the myriad of mental health and substance-related needs in the City of Buffalo, Erie County and the greater Western New York (WNY) region. The people of Buffalo face a number of challenges, which impact mental health and substance use. Many citizens in the City of Buffalo suffer from poverty, ranking 7th amongst cities in the nation, with some census tracts in Buffalo having poverty rates between 49% and 73%. Poverty disproportionately effects minority populations, with 37% of Black/African individuals living in concentrated areas of poverty versus 12% for White people. The Buffalo area has a higher rate of disability compared to New York State. Important health metrics, such as cardiovascular and cancer mortality rates are alarmingly higher than national averages. To meet the mental health and substance use needs of the population, we propose to increase the number of interns completing a substance abuse and serious mental illness track from 2 to 3 per year. Additionally, we propose to fund two doctoral student positions who will primarily work within a larger acute inpatient psychiatric service within a public hospital, consisting of 7 adult units and 1 adolescent unit. Our interns complete three yearlong rotations, including work in outpatient substance abuse clinics in the Buffalo area, along with an inpatient stabilization and withdrawal unit providing individual counseling, group treatment, and assessment services. For the third yearlong experience interns may work in a large county jail (including running groups with individuals with serious mental illness), a youth detention facility (providing individual and group treatment), or an acute inpatient psychiatric service (providing psychological testing, along with individual and group treatment). Doctoral students will also provide psychological testing, along with individual and group treatment across 8 acute inpatient units. All experiential training sites serve the residents of Buffalo and the WNY region. Most counties in WNY are considered psychologist shortage areas. Much of Buffalo is considered a medically underserved area and most of our experiential training sites are in high demand and high need areas. Our program will also focus on providing high quality didactic training to doctoral interns and students, through participation in a yearlong curriculum that focuses on developmental issues related to serious mental illness, substance use prevention and treatment, trauma, personality pathology, and clinical intervention skills. Additionally, interns receive yearlong training from the current director of University at Buffalo Clinical and Research Institute on Addiction following the recommended outline for substance use disorder in early academic career healthcare education program through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. We will offer support to interns to attend professional conferences. We will also provide training support to faculty through attendance to conferences and professional development seminars. All project activities will be coordinated by the Project Director, an Associate Project Director, and the Project Administrator, who will maintain primary responsibility for all aspects of implementation. Key stakeholders within the program, including the Chief of the Division of Psychology and Department Chair are committed to ongoing support. Recruitment of GPE-funded interns will be overseen by the Project Director. Evaluation, monitoring, and r
