Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA)

Cupola atop a building on the Molloy University campus

HRSA - BHWET Grant Opportunity for Students!

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

Molloy University’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling Graduate Department was awarded a $1.16 million HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program for Professionals grant for a four-year period, 2021-2025. Funded through the American Rescue Plan Act, C5: Changing Communities through Compassionate Counseling Children and Youth Program, will increase the number of well-trained practitioners in our Clinical Mental Health Counseling program and expand partnerships with healthcare providers to serve vulnerable children and transitional-age youth in high-need, high-demand communities.

The grant is focused specifically on addressing environmental conditions that contribute to gaps in the delivery of mental health services to children, youth, and families, addressing the gaps in service to immigrant populations in NY and incorporating evidence-based practices and treatment models to address trauma related mental health issues. Our annual HRSA Workshop Series targets these goals by providing workshops to the behavioral health workforce to help close the education/skill gaps.

Additionally, a portion of the grant funding provides 70 graduate students in both Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Psychiatric Nursing a $10,000 stipend when serving these vulnerable populations and working to further enhance their cultural competence as clinicians/practitioners.

Grant Goals

  • Helping to decrease mental health shortages.
  • Addressing environmental conditions that contribute to gaps in the delivery of mental health services to children, youth, and families.
  • Establishing new collaborations and training sites among a diverse group of public and private providers
  • Utilizing telehealth technology, distance learning opportunities, and remote clinician supervision to address gaps in the delivery of behavioral health services.
  • Addressing the gaps in service to immigrant populations in NY.
  • incorporating evidence-based practices and treatment models to address trauma related mental health issues.
  • Addressing substance use disorder in the target population.
  • Revising curriculum better suited to the target population and improving cultural sensitivity training.
  • Attracting and training trainees from different racial, ethnic, cultural, geographic, gender, and sexual orientation backgrounds.
  • Exposing CMHC students to working in Medically Underserved Communities (MUC)s, with interdisciplinary teams in integrated care settings.

HRSA Contact

Laura Kestemberg, HRSA-BHWET Director

Clinical Mental Health Department Molloy University

Nicole Lara, HRSA-BHWET Project Coordinator

Clinical Mental Health Department Molloy University