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Joe Evans, Ph.D. |
Dr. Evans recently received notice that he is the recipient of the American Psychological Foundation Cummings Psyche Prize, an annual award that recognizes one psychologist in the country whose career exemplifies the integration of behavioral and primary health care. Past winners have included Arnold A. Lazarus, Ph.D., Aaron T. Beck, M.D. and Don Lipsitt, M.D.
“To be put in the same category as some of these earlier recipients, who are some of the best known mental health leaders in the country, really makes me feel very proud,” Dr. Evans said.
Dr. Evans was chosen for the competitive award for establishing 14 integrated behavioral outreach clinics within primary care settings. Those clinics have served patients from more than 225 communities and towns in rural Nebraska over the past 10 years.
The first integrated site was established in Columbus, Neb., in November of 1997 after several traveling diagnostic clinics held around the state revealed unmet needs for many children.
Because of a lack of behavioral health expertise in those areas, Dr. Evans proposed sending MMI licensed psychologists, mental health practitioners and trainees to work in rural primary care clinics.
According to federal and state workforce statistics, 88 of Nebraska’s 93 counties are experiencing a mental health professional shortage. To combat these numbers, Dr. Evans has trained graduate students, pre-doctoral interns and post-doctoral fellows not only to integrate services into primary care, but also to teach classes to mental health trainees at local colleges such as the University of Nebraska at Kearney and Chadron State College.
Currently, all of the outreach clinics in Nebraska are staffed by MMI-trained personnel, the majority of these people have moved to — and currently practice in — rural areas.
“Our main goal is to expand the integration of behavioral health professionals into primary care settings and to get behavioral health specialists placed into every town with a population of 12,000 or more for pediatrics and 5,000 or more for family medicine,” Dr. Evans said. “We’ve got a long way to go. In the past year, however, we conducted more than 7,000 patient visits in our rural clinics, which gives you an idea of the demand for services.”
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Locally, Dr. Evans envisions his network of behavioral health clinics growing from 14 to 20 sites in rural Nebraska and from six to nine sites in the Omaha area. To help staff additional clinics, he plans to establish training programs for mid-level practitioners in at least two collaborating state college programs.
“The development of our 14 rural clinics has significantly assisted in addressing the unmet behavioral health needs of children in out-state Nebraska,” said Bruce Buehler, M.D., former director of the Munroe-Meyer Institute and current professor of pediatrics who nominated Dr. Evans for the award. “Dr. Evans has a real passion for taking care of people — from the students he mentors to the faculty he leads to the people he serves. It is his willingness to distribute his resources that makes everyone around him better.”
Dr. Buehler also noted that Dr. Evans has brought in more than $7 million in grants from federal and state resources, including the HRSA Bureau of Health Professions, for his program. The State Legislature even passed the Rural Behavioral Health Training and Retention Act in 2006, allocating funding to ensure the continuation of capacity to attract, recruit, train, place and retain behavioral health specialists in integrated primary care settings.
Dr. Evans plans to spend the $50,000 he receives as part of the APF Cummings award on the behavior health outreach program.
“Our plan is to potentially use the money to help disseminate our materials and concepts, and possibly for a sabbatical to establish the program in another state,” he said.
To show its appreciation for all that Dr. Evans has accomplished in the past and will accomplish in the future, the AFP Cummings Foundation will host a banquet in his honor on Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Regency Marriott Hotel in Omaha for his family, friends and colleagues.
Dr. Buehler believes Dr. Evans is very deserving of the honor and award.
“He is a rare and remarkable jewel who has advanced the science and practice of psychology as a means of understanding behavior and promoting health in integrated primary care settings,” Dr. Buehler said. “It is difficult to imagine anyone who has done more to expand the role of psychologists across our state and indeed, our entire region.”