Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program - Need: Hawai’i is in the midst of a severe mental health crisis, with demand for services soaring due to the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic challenges, and global uncertainties. A significant shortage of mental health professionals, particularly pediatric psychiatric providers, has made timely care largely inaccessible. The crisis is even more acute on the neighbor islands, such as Hawai’i Island, where the client-to-therapist ratio stands at an alarming 320-to-1. Currently, Hawai’i meets only about 14% of its mental health service needs, with an even smaller fraction available for children. In a recent statewide survey, over three-quarters of healthcare providers reported that mental health counseling and psychiatry are the most requested services among patient referrals. Proposed Services: To address these issues, we will 1) recruit and train Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners; 2) expand and create new community partnerships with experiential integrated care training sites in high-need, high-demand areas; 3) enhance collaborative training by adopting team-based care models that integrate behavioral health into interprofessional primary care settings, and; 4) recruit, develop, and increase the capacity of clinical supervisors to support and mentor behavioral health trainees. Specifically, Chaminade University of Honolulu's Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) initiative aims to address the critical need for Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners (PMHNPs) in Hawai’i. Our goal is to increase the number of highly skilled PMHNPs by providing financial support to students, thereby reducing the economic barriers to entering this specialized field. Additionally, we will enhance field placement opportunities within the PMHNP track of our Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program, emphasizing interprofessional, community-based settings. These partnerships will involve interprofessional teams and offer our students valuable collaborative training while integrating behavioral health services into the care provided to medically underserved communities. For this BHWET project, we will collaborate with the Institute of Human Services (IHS) and Child and Family Service (CFS). Populations to be Served: These proposed services will primarily serve young adults in underserved and marginalized areas of Hawai’i. Funding Preference: For our BHWET program, we will be requesting for Funding Priority 1: Programs that have demonstrated the ability to train psychology, psychiatry, and social work professionals to work in integrated care settings; and for Funding Preference 3: New Program.
