Clinical Psychology and School of Social Work awarded $1.48M to address behavioral health workforce needs
The Clinical Psychology program and the School of Social Work received 1.48 million dollars of funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for a four-year project to support students in gaining education and skills in integrated behavioral health.
Sandra Butler, director of the School of Social Work, will lead the development and implementation of the Rural Integrated Behavioral Health in Primary Care (RIBHPC) training program alongside Emily Haigh, director of clinical training for the clinical psychology doctoral program at UMaine. The RIBHPC training program will help to address the behavioral health care workforce needs in rural Maine by preparing social work and clinical psychology graduate students for careers in rural integrated behavioral health.
Program Goals:
- Expand relationships with community partners to increase access to high quality integrated behavioral health services in rural Maine.
- Develop collaborative training model for team-based integrated behavioral health care in primary care settings for social work and psychology graduate education.
- Develop a diverse pool of social work and psychology health care professionals interested and prepared to work in high needs areas of rural Maine.