Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska

- Programs and Training Overview
- - Lifelong Learning Fund
    BHECN's Lifelong Learning fund supports educational and career engagement opportunities to help grow our state's behavioral health workforce.
  - Graduate Trainee Stipend Program
    The Graduate Trainee Stipend Program financially supports master's-level students during select advanced practicum or internship experiences.
  - Mentoring Program
    BHECN's mentorship program provides guidance and support to undergraduate and graduate-level students seeking licensed behavioral health careers in Nebraska.
  - BHECN Scholars
    The BHECN Scholars program supports undergraduate seniors who plan to pursue master’s degrees in Nebraska-based behavioral health programs.
- - Core Topics
    This accredited continuing education activity is designed for Behavioral Health providers to include psychologists, nurses, therapists, and social workers.
  - Project PEACE
    The Project PEACE Webinar Series is a series of webinars recorded by psychiatry residents on rotation with BHECN.
  - Telehealth Training
    Following the COVID-19 pandemic, day-to-day use of telehealth allows people to connect safely and effectively to mental health services no matter where they are located.
- Partnerships Overview
- Nebraska Behavioral Health Education Partnership (NEBHEP)
  BHECN partners with the 19 academic institutions to track the number of graduate-level behavioral health education students graduating and staying in Nebraska.
- Nebraska Behavioral Health Training Partnership
  BHECN establishes partnerships to create and disseminate educational materials for the development of the behavioral health workforce.
- Advisory Groups
  BHECN’s advisory groups provide input that shapes our work and help us keep up with the latest challenges and issues facing Nebraska’s behavioral health workforce.
- Research, Data & Policy Overview
- Nebraska Behavioral Health Workforce Dashboard
  The dashboard helps policy makers, employers, and behavioral health care stakeholders understand the state of the behavioral health workforce.
- Legislative Reports
  BHECN's biennial legislative reports examine the characteristics of actively practicing behavioral health providers in Nebraska.
- Nebraska Behavioral Health Policy Forum
  This forum discussed how investments in BHECN are being used to recruit, train, and retain behavioral health and rural healthcare providers across Nebraska.
- ARPA
  Access information related BHECN’s allocation of $25.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to Nebraska behavioral health providers.
- BHECN's Published Research
  See a listing of BHECN's published research.
- BHECN Sites Overview
- BHECN Panhandle
  Our BHECN Panhandle site supports our mission of recruitment and retention of behavioral health professionals in Western Nebraska.
- BHECN Central
  BHECN Central is a remote site for training and workforce development at the University of Nebraska Kearney that serves the central part of the state.
- BHECN Northeast
  BHECN Northeast is a remote site based at Wayne State College that facilitates training and workforce development in Northeast Nebraska.
- BHECN East
  BHECN East is located at the UNO Grace Abbott School of Social Work and focuses primarily on the behavioral health workforce needs of the Omaha area.
BHECN Model

— Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska — Programs and Training — Student and Trainee Opportunities

Student and Trainee Opportunities

BHECN has a commitment to increasing the number of students training in the behavioral health fields in all areas of the state. This commitment initially focused on increasing the number of psychiatry residents trained in the state and on identifying barriers to the retention of psychiatrists in the state.

There are two psychiatry residence training programs in Nebraska. One is sponsored by the Department of Psychiatry at Creighton University Medical Center (CUMC) and fully accredited training is offered in General Psychiatry as well as Fellowships in Geriatric and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. The second psychiatry residence program sponsored by the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha, Nebraska, got its start in 2020.

All psychiatry residents will receive training in rural mental health issues. All residents will experience a month-long rural clinical rotation in a designated community during their second year of training. All residents will also be involved in rural outreach clinics via telehealth facilities. Through this process, all psychiatry residency graduates will have developed an appreciation for rural Nebraska and the behavioral health needs of its citizens.

The behavioral health system must have more professionals than just psychiatrists to meet the needs of citizens. BHECN will work with all behavioral health students including counseling, psychology, nursing, social work, and other graduate behavioral health training programs to increase the number of students trained in the state and the retention of these students in the state.