Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program for Professionals

Link

https://www.hrsa.gov/grants/find-funding/HRSA-25-068

Additional Links

Notice of Funding Opportunity (Grants.gov)

Deadline

Application Deadline: Jan 21, 2025

Sponsor

Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW)

Purpose

Awards funding to institutions and programs to develop and expand experiential training opportunities, such as field placements and internships, for individuals training in behavioral health disciplines. Aims to increase the number of behavioral health professionals serving in high need, high demand areas, with special focus on understanding of the behavioral health needs of children, adolescents, and young adults at risk for mental health, trauma, and behavioral health disorders.

Program objectives include:

• Increase the number of new or expanded community partnerships with experiential training sites in high-need and high-demand areas
• Utilize team-based models of care in integrated, interdisciplinary behavioral and primary care settings
• Recruit diverse workforce interested in working with children, adolescents, and young adults
• Recruit, develop, and expand the capacity to train clinical supervisors to support and mentor behavioral health trainees

Required program activities include:

• Providing stipend support for 6 to 12 months to students in their final experiential training before graduation
• Enhancing didactic and interdisciplinary, experiential training activities with trainee competencies in behavioral health and integration into primary care and other settings
• Creating new or strengthening existing, evidence-based, interprofessional training programs for faculty and field site supervisors
• Integrating technology through the use of distance learning and training to strengthen telehealth service delivery and digital literacy
• Developing relationships with community-based partners to to assist with job placement for students after graduation
• Collecting National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers from all trainees before the end of the training year
• Provide continuous quality improvement for program evaluation throughout the project period
• Collaborating regularly with other grantees to leverage resources and enhance training across regions

For this opportunity, high need and high demand areas are identified as sites located within a Mental Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and/or a Facility Mental HPSA with a score of 16 or above, or within a geographical area considered rural as defined by the HRSA Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). Applicants can use the HPSA Find Tool or the Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer to determine an area's eligibility.

Trainees may receive no more than 12 consecutive months of stipend support through this program. Part-time trainees are allowed to receive a stipend prorated at one-half of the fixed amount for no more than 24 consecutive months. Required minimum stipend amounts for full-time trainees are as follows:

• $25,000 for master's students
• $32,500 for doctoral students
• $36,500 for doctoral interns
• $60,000 for post-doctoral residents

Amount of Funding

Award ceiling: $600,000 per year
Project period: 4 years
Estimated number of awards: 101
Estimated total program funding: $59,600,000

Cost sharing is required for doctoral level psychology, psychiatry, behavioral pediatrics and psychiatric nursing internships. Grantees must use non-federal funds to cover any stipend amounts set by regional associations that exceed the maximum $32,500 stipend amount for this opportunity.

At least 4 grants will be awarded to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) or other minority-serving institutions (MSIs).

Who Can Apply

Eligible applicants include:

• Accredited institutions of higher education or training programs establishing or expanding experiential training in 1 of the following disciplines:
  • Mental health in psychiatry
  • Psychology
  • School psychology
  • Behavioral pediatrics
  • Psychiatric nursing
  • Social work
  • School social work
  • Substance use disorder (SUD) prevention and treatment
  • Marriage and family therapy
  • Occupational therapy
  • School counseling
  • Professional counseling, including programs with a focus on child and adolescent mental health, trauma, and transitional-age youth
• Accredited doctoral, internship, and post-doctoral residency programs of health service psychology, including clinical psychology, counseling, and school psychology
• Accredited master's and doctoral degree programs of social work for developing or implementing interdisciplinary training for the provision of behavioral health services, including trauma-informed care and SUD prevention and treatment services

A complete list of eligible organizations is available in the funding announcement.

Applicants can request a funding preference under a qualification for placing program trainees and graduates in medically underserved communities (MUCs):

1. Qualification 1 - High Rate: Must demonstrate that at least 50% of program graduates in practice settings serving MUCs in academic years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024.
2. Qualification 2 - Significant Increase: Must demonstrate a 25% increase placing program graduates in MUCs from academic year 2022-2023 to academic year 2023-2024.
3. Qualification 3 - New Program: Must meet at least 4 of the criteria related to MUCs specified in Part 4 of the program guidance. New programs are defined as any program that has graduated/completed less than 3 classes.

Medically underserved communities are defined as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs), Medically Underserved Populations (MUPs), or a Governor Certified Shortage Areas for Rural Health Clinic (RHC) purposes HPSA. Applicants can document these designations using the HRSA Shortage Area Dashboard.

Current BHWET award recipients whose grants are scheduled to end on June 30, 2025 are eligible to apply for this funding opportunity and should apply as "Competing Continuations."

Geographic Coverage

Nationwide

What This Program Funds

Capacity Building • New Program • Operating Costs and Staffing • Training Providers

Application Process

Application instructions, requirements, and other information can be found in the funding announcement.

Applicant webinar recording

Contact

For programmatic or technical questions:
Miryam Gerdine, MPH
301-443-6752
BHWETPro25@hrsa.gov

For grants management or budget questions:
Nandini Assar, Ph.D.
301-443-4920
nassar@hrsa.gov

Topics This Program Addresses

Healthcare Workforce • Mental Health • Substance Use Disorder