Silver School Awarded Three-Year Grant For Training in Behavioral Health Care

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has awarded the NYU Silver School of Social Work a three-year, $467,000 grant to support interdisciplinary education of future behavioral health care providers.

In partnership with the NYU Colleges of Nursing and Dentistry and with two community-based organizations, Institute for Community Living and Community Access, the Silver School will establish the NYU Integrated Behavioral Health Project (NYU-IBH). The project will train NYU Silver students committed to working in behavioral health, and will provide primary and integrated behavioral health care for female civilians and veterans living in poverty-impacted, underserved communities.

Specifically, the Silver School will use the funding to develop an integrated classroom-field experience for MSW students with an explicit focus on services for women struggling with serious mental health challenges. Through Community Access and Institute for Community Living, social work students will have on-site agency training and supervisory opportunities.

The Silver School has targeted this training around female civilian and veterans as they serve central roles in families and disproportionately live in poverty, all while attempting to meet their own mental and physical health needs. MSW students involved in IBH will receive $10,000 annual stipends and should be committed to working post-graduation with high-need populations through behavioral health services.

Over time, the collaborators plan to establish the NYU Community-Based Behavioral Health Teaching Institute to allow for sustained behavioral health training of MSW students and to build outreach for women in need within target communities.

"This initiative will strengthen collaboration across disciplines at New York University and with experienced local agencies, providing Silver School field education students state-of-the-art training in primary and behavioral integrated health care," said Helle Thorning, clinical professor and assistant dean of field learning and community partnerships.

The HRSA funding was made available under the Affordable Care Act and places the Silver School at the forefront of education in integrated health and behavioral health care. The project will involve several Silver School faculty, including Thorning, Mary McKay, Shulamith Lala Straussner, Victoria Stanhope, Evelyn Nieves, Carol Tosone, and Dean Lynn Videka.