Meredith Weber, Ph.D., was looking to return to southeast Nebraska after completing her psychology degree at Oklahoma State and predoctoral internship in Omaha at the Munroe-Meyer Institute when she saw a chance to join the psychology department at MMI for her postdoctoral fellowship.
“I’m originally from Nebraska, and I had become familiar with MMI’s behavioral health outreach efforts in rural areas of the state,” she said. “I came to MMI knowing that there was an immense need for behavioral health throughout Nebraska, and hoped that I would be able to play a part in expanding these services.”
This year, Dr. Weber is in a post-doctoral fellowship at the Beatrice Community Hospital and Health Center, serving patients primarily at the Gage County Medical Clinic and Wymore Medical Clinic. Recently, she’s been talking with BCHHC about staying on staff at the end of her fellowship year.
“MMI is constantly expanding training opportunities, with providers and trainees in Columbus, Kearney, Grand Island, Hastings, Norfolk, western Nebraska, and now Beatrice,” she said. “Previous rural trainees are able to help the new trainees, which is very beneficial and speaks to the great support system and mentorship within the MMI Psychology department.”
“The integrated care program in the Department of Psychology at Munroe-Meyer Institute has been building a network of clinics over the past 22 years,” said Holly Roberts, Ph.D., who is the clinic liaison for the department. “Dr. Joe Evans pioneered these behavioral health integration efforts and his ongoing mentorship has been valuable to the success of establishing new clinics.”
“The MMI Department of Psychology has been focused on attracting, training, and placing behavioral health students and licensed behavioral health providers in primary care clinics in rural areas of Nebraska to increase access to much needed behavioral health services,” Dr. Roberts said. “We have focused our training program in part to helping our students learn how to successfully integrate and maintain relationships with our champions in primary care.”
“We have been fortunate to attract many students to our integrated care training program,” Dr. Roberts said. “Oftentimes, students develop an interest in practicing in integrated care and combine that interest with a passion for living and practicing in an underserved and/or rural area.”
“Meredith is a gem. She came to Nebraska to complete her doctoral internship and indicated to us almost immediately of her interest in a career in integrated care and establishing clinics in southeast Nebraska.”
When Dr. Weber came to Beatrice, the hospital system was looking for a behavioral health professional to expand to other clinics that didn’t have a behavioral health presence, and she was provided with extra supervision to enable her to serve clients across the lifespan.
“Psychology is a field that is constantly growing and looking for new ways to meet patient needs,” Dr. Weber said. “We have to do our best to increase access to behavioral healthcare and help people reach their potential, regardless of where they reside.”
That’s the goal for MMI, as well — increasing access to behavioral health services in a predominately rural state.
“When we have the opportunity to train an intern like Meredith, we do everything we can to support that student and connect them with behavioral health champions in rural Nebraska and provide support for them to achieve their goal in working in rural Nebraska,” Dr. Roberts said. “We are fortunate to have an excellent team in psychology who have led the way in obtaining grant funding to help achieve these training and access goals.”