Innovative Partnerships to Train School-Based Mental Health Providers in High-Need Schools & LEAs in Rural Georgia

• Sponsor
  U.S. Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
  $4,733,188

• Principal investigator
  Bernadette Heckman
  Professor, Department of Counseling and Human Development Services
  

• Co-principal investigators
  Sycarah Fisher
  Associate professor, Department of Educational Psychology
  

  Timothy Heckman
  Professor, College of Public Health
  

  George McMahon
  Clinical associate professor, department head, Department of Counseling and Human Development Services

• Active since
  April 2023

Abstract

This project will increase the number and diversity of mental health providers from the University of Georgia’s school counseling and school psychology programs who will provide contextualized mental health services in five high-need schools in rural northern Georgia. In collaboration with these schools and community partners, this project will provide a diverse group of trainees didactic and experiential training to prepare them to administer evidence-based mental and behavioral health services to K-12 students that are inclusive in terms of race/ethnicity, culture, language, and sexual self-identity.

The project’s primary outcomes are the:

1. Numbers and demographics of students trained and placed in high-need local educational agencies (LEAs)
2. Numbers and demographics of trainees hired by high-need LEAs and schools
3. Numbers and demographics of students and families served
4. Trainees’ abilities to provide culturally-contextualized treatments to students from diverse groups

One high-need LEA with rural and low income school status (Madison County, Georgia School District) and five high-need schools will be served (three elementary, one middle school, and one high school). All are economically-impoverished, have high participation rates in free/reduced school lunch programs, and have zero mental health professionals on staff. Across the participating high school, middle school, and three elementary schools, this project has the potential to interact with as many as 4,200 K-12 students.

Additionally, this project will train 50 graduate students in the University of Georgia’s school counseling program (N=40) and school psychology program (N=10). All trainees will be mentored to obtain employment as mental health professionals in high-need LEAs and high-need schools in Georgia or other states upon graduation.