Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program - Project description: University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) is located in Detroit, Michigan, a region facing a critical shortage of behavioral health professionals, including those with advanced training to serve children, adolescents, and transitional-age youth. The UDM Department of Psychology clinical psychology Ph.D. and specialist in school psychology training programs will partner to prepare behavioral health professionals to serve Michigan’s high-needs, high-demand communities through Clinical & School Psychology Health Engagement & Resource Education (C-SPHERE), a HRSA BHWET Program for Professionals. This joint training program will enhance training for a total of 64 students, with 32 from UDM’s clinical psychology Ph.D. program who are in their fourth and final year of the program, and 32 from the school psychology specialist program in their third and final year of the program, by providing training stipends, targeted mentorship, cultural competency training, and interprofessional collaboration opportunities. Needs: C-SPHERE responds to significant community, training, and workforce needs, including: high rates of mental health and substance use issues among youth and young adults, exceeding state and national averages; significant shortages in the availability of school psychologists and clinical psychologists, falling far below projected behavioral health workforce adequacy rates; limited cross-training opportunities for clinical psychologists and school psychologists to interact across their unique disciplinary contexts, as well as to train in integrated-care environments; and the significant student loan burden many graduate psychology students carry without sufficient access to experiential-training stipend support. Proposed services: C-SPHERE will add five new experiential-training sites in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), including two sites for clinical psychology students, and three school sites. Through C-SPHERE activities, psychology professional students, as well as faculty members, site supervisors, and practicing behavioral health providers throughout Michigan, will gain interprofessional skills in prevention, intervention, and family engagement to address mental health disorders, including through a virtual interprofessional professional-education series, and intensive case-based interprofessional seminars. Population groups that will be served: C-SPHERE students in both clinical and school psychology programs will substantially focus on serving children, adolescents, and young adults who reside in UDM’s Metro Detroit region (which includes Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland Counties). Clinical psychology students largely complete training in urban Detroit, where residents have lower levels of educational attainment, high rates of adults without health insurance, and a larger proportion of people with disabilities than other Michigan communities. School psychology students complete placements throughout the region, with a handful of students placed in outlying Eaton, Huron, Ingham, Livingston, and Washtenaw Counties each year. Funding priority or preference: UDM is eligible for the funding priority and seeks funding preference under qualification 1, with a rate of placement exceeding 51%.
