Lipscomb's Initiative for Behavioral Health Integration

Lipscomb’s clinical mental health counseling program has been awarded a federal grant in —$1.8 million—to carry out an innovative approach to bringing mental health services straight to underserved populations in the location where they most often first get recognized—the patient’s doctor’s office.

The grant was awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services which is the primary federal agency for improving health care for people who are geographically isolated and economically or medically vulnerable.

It funds a project proposed by Douglas Ribeiro, assistant professor of psychology, counseling and family science. “Improving Mental Health Services through Integrative Care Opportunities in Nashville, Tennessee” offers best practice training for health care professionals working on-site in medical offices and to place mental health counseling interns in those offices we well.

Such an approach addresses unmet mental health needs of medically underserved populations, particularly immigrant populations and residents whose primary language is not English.

“When someone has a need, particularly in the underserved populations, they often go to their primary care physician first,” said Ribeiro. “By integrating counselors into the traditional primary care physician offices, the counselor and the physician can collaborate on-site about how to best serve the patient and to provide the needed care right away.”

“This grant enables our clinical mental health counseling program to equip working professionals with the tools they need to be on the front line of this new approach to mental health care,” said Norma B. Burgess, dean of Lipscomb’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, which houses the program. “I am particularly thankful that through this grant, many in the Nashville community will have access to counseling services that would not otherwise be available to them.”

Through the grant, the Lipscomb Initiative for Behavior and Health Integration was established, to develop interdisciplinary training for health care professionals using resources in Lipscomb’s mental health counseling program, marriage and family therapy program and College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences.

Ribeiro said another goal of the program is to place approximately 30 mental health counseling interns per year for four years on-site at community partners to provide integrative health care services to medically underserved patients. Through these internships, each student will work for about 600 hours at their service partner organization spending about 240 face-to-face hours with clients.

“When you multiply that by 30 students who will be placed in internships each year, that’s about 7,200 hours each year that our students will spend in serving the underserved residents of Nashville,” said Ribeiro. “I am excited for the new levels of collaboration between disciplines as we equip students for this new approach to mental health care. But at the end of the day, what pleases me most is that we are reaching numerous people who wouldn’t have the resources to find a counselor without this program.”

In addition, the grant will allow Lipscomb to develop job placement, career development and networking services for clinical mental health counseling graduates to increase the retention of behavioral health providers employed and serving medically underserved populations in the Nashville area.

Lipscomb’s grant is part of the HRSA’s Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program, which develops and expands the behavioral health workforce. The program places special emphasis on establishing placements that include interdisciplinary training to provide quality behavioral health services to communities in need.

“Through grants such as the one we have been awarded, HRSA is trying to equip practitioners to be competent in an integrated model of health care including both mental and physical health,” said Jake Morris, director of clinical mental health counseling in Lipscomb’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. “This is not only a way for them to provide better services but to do that in a more efficient and cost-effective way by treating these needs in one place. Our students will not just graduate with a top-quality, cutting-edge multidisciplinary education, but they will also be equipped to do the next big thing.”