A $6 million grant from the United States Department of Education will help the Munroe-Meyer Institute grow the number of school mental health providers and better meet the mental health needs of Nebraska students.
“It’s growing the workforce but also building the capacity to support students in areas with the highest levels of need who are most underserved,” said Brandy Clarke, PhD, associate professor of psychology at MMI, who is the project director of the grant.
The grant spans five years with a total of $1.2 million being given annually, Dr. Clarke said.
About 70% of schools indicate that the need for student mental health services has increased, yet there aren’t enough providers, Dr. Clarke said in the grant application. In Nebraska, 95 percent of counties are identified as having a shortage of mental health providers.
The grant has three primary objectives, Dr. Clarke said:
- Expanding the institute’s school psychological services through internships and training programs;
- Increasing capacity for those already in the field and working in schools; and
- Developing new certificate training for teachers interested in serving as behavioral health technicians.
“It will allow us to do more training for educators on how to equitably meet students’ needs by creating more opportunities for students to access support,” Dr. Clarke said.
A total of 80 trainees would complete the program over the next five years, with 45 funded through the grant. More than 100 educators would become certified behavioral health technicians and another 500 would receive professional development training in school mental health.
The grant is expected to benefit more than 9,000 students with tiered school mental health support. More than 140,000 students would be impacted by improved mental health programming across four high-need areas, including ESU #3, which serves 18 districts, including Bellevue, Millard, Papillion-La Vista and Westside; Omaha Public Schools; Nebraska City Public Schools; and Umoⁿhoⁿ National Public Schools, in Macy, Nebraska.
“We’re really excited about the opportunity to grow and expand in this area, to sustain the work,” Dr. Clarke said. “It will allow us to expand our partnerships to some schools of the highest need but also to some schools in rural locations that we have not yet developed partnerships with.”