Skillful & Resilient Clinical Mental Health Counselors for Bridgeport

Abstract

The University of Bridgeport (UB), Master’s in Counseling program developed, RP! Radically Prepared! A Program to Develop a Skillful, Resilient, Professional Counselor Workforce for Southern Connecticut, a project to increase the supply of highly qualified behavioral health professionals (Clinical Mental Health Counselors, CMHCs) in urban Southern Connecticut’s Healthcare Professional Shortage Areas (Figure 1). This project was awarded over 1.5 million dollars of Federal (HRSA) grant funding. The overarching goal of this project is to increase Connecticut’s behavioral health workforce by training resilient, skilled CMHCs from underrepresented groups who are bilingual and culturally competent to serve diverse client populations within interdisciplinary team-based care settings in the high need and high demand areas. UB is working to achieve this by providing stipends to clinical mental health counseling students at existing and several new, experiential, interdisciplinary training sites. The RP! program is on target to distribute $280,000 by the end of fiscal year three. The target size of 24 students was met, for Cohort two. We have distributed $513,000 in stipends to date. Thanks to grant funding, UB has trained up to 46 site supervisors at designated HPSA sites. RP! is focused on three major evidence based, trauma-informed care training components including: Dialectic Behavioral Therapy Skills (DBT-Skills), Motivational Interviewing (MI), and Circle of Security Parenting (COSP), promote self-regulation. This year, 24 site supervisors participated in DBT training through the UB DBT online training course. This spring, we plan to train 20 site supervisors in MI through our annual UB IMILC Integrated Care Event. Two site supervisors were funded to participate in COSP training through Circle of Security International. RP! Program graduates typically serve in the region for at least three years, and combined with the training of site supervisors, will sustain the program many years beyond the funding period. Training components: DBT-Skills, MI, and COSP will be sustained well beyond the funding period.