Accelerate Integrated Mental Health Initiatives (AIMHI): Expanding Integrated Behavioral Health to Rural Communities to Serve Children, Youth and Families Grant uri icon

abstract

  • In response to the President?s call to action, the Now is the Time Initiative to increase access to mental health services, East Carolina University (ECU) is developing the Accelerate Integrated Mental Health Initiatives (AIMHI) program. AIMHI is an integrated behavioral health program focused on preparing professional counselors to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services to children, adolescents, and transitional age youth in rural, underserved communities in eastern North Carolina. The AIMHI program will be embedded in the CACREP accredited counseling program at ECU, which is currently training 89 graduate students to become licensed professional counselors. Through AIMHI, ECU will prepare and place 65 students in integrated behavioral health internships focusing on services to a diverse population of children, youth and families in rural communities between 2017 and 2020. The AIMHI Administrative Team seeks funding from the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training, Program Opportunity HRSA-16-193 for Year 1 (September 30, 2016 ? September 29, 2017) of the AIMHI program, during which time 21 students will be placed in integrated behavioral health internships serving children, youth and families. In addition to the newly created AIMHI cohort of students, the program will also include a graduate level certificate in Integrated Behavioral Health for Children and Youth and will graduate 30 additional certificants with this post-masters specialization during years 2 and 3 of the program. Established in 1951, the ECU counseling program has over 65 years of longstanding and widespread relationships with health services providers, clinical counseling agencies and K-12 schools in the region. The high quality CMHC program is well poised to address the workforce shortage for behavioral health providers in underserved rural communities and connect the AIMHI interns directly to the children and youth who most need the help of highly qualified behavioral health counselors. By expanding internships and field placement sites into communities with low numbers of health service professionals as well as strategically connecting with Hispanic/Latino and African American families, the AIMHI program will directly address behavioral health disparities in rural eastern North Carolina. AIMHI students will learn strategies to provide high quality prevention, intervention and integrated behavioral health approaches for children, youth and families and provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services in counseling as valued members of healthcare teams, expanding behavioral health capacity for this underserved region. Although integrated care has produced the best outcomes for treating those with mental health issues (SAMHSA, Center for Integrated Health Solutions, 2016), there is no master?s level training program in North Carolina with a specific focus on this delivery method for professional counselors, thus ECU?s AIMHI program will answer the great need for training in this area.

date/time interval

  • September 2016 - June 2018